The Grants Artefacts
by Tablax Clipper
Summary: Can Arundel Granville foil a plot to resurrect the Dark Lord, restore her relationship with Snape and survive as a Hogwarts teacher?
1. Chapter 1

Grants Artefact.

It was incomprehensible how a city so big and full of people could be so quiet. When Arundel apparated outside number 13 Shadows Crescent in Bermondsey all she could hear was the patter of rain on the cobblestones and laughter behind the shutters of the only lit townhouse. She kept to the shadows, hands in her pockets and observed the open front door and the drinkers who had come outside to smoke. She saw Cornelius Fudge stumble down the stairs with a woman on his arm, not too dignified for the man who was popular for the next Minister of Magic. She saw Albus, the Hogwarts headmaster, talking to a man with a beard almost as long as his, observed how he leaned in close, how he touched the man's arm and how his eyes flicked up past the man to her. She noted who the man was, in Russia his nickname translated as the Grey Wolf, Albus did know how to pick em' she thought to herself. She dare not get close to the party, too much heat and too many big players who disliked her profusely so she waited, shivering in the rain until the party wound up in the early hours of the morning. Finally, she stepped from the shadows and made her way up the stairs to the front door. Three knocks, she took steps back and waited.

Alastor Moody, Mad eye, they called him, on account of his electric blue false eye which swiveled like it had a life of it's own in his empty socket and saw through walls and doors, opened the door to her and stuck his wand in her face, "You've got some nerve coming here," he sneered. "Dumbledore said he saw you."

"Are you going to let me in?" Arundel asked, ignoring Moody's hostility.

"I'd rather not," Moody stood aside anyway and dropped his wand. "But since i'm in such a good mood-"

She passed him, entered his hallway, which still smelled of alcohol and was thick with a fug of tobacco smoke, she noted the pink and green pinstripe wallpaper and winced.

"Living rooms to the left," he told her as he closed the door, one eye watched her, the other swung wildly around as if searching for hidden dangers she may have brought with her. It settled on her pocket, where a charmed bag sat heavy with numerous items she should not have.

"Dumbledore didn't stick around to speak to me too then? Did he go with Greywolf?"

Moody looked at her as if she had asked a stupid question. "Do you want something to drink?" he asked, but his eye was still focused on her pocket. She knew he wouldn't be able to see inside the bag but the fact that it was there was enough to get him worried. Worried enough to poison her, she wasn't sure.

"No," she pulled the bag out of her pocket. She noticed Moody's hand twitch as she moved, a testament to how nervous he was. He was the greatest Aura she knew, and a true master of nonverbal magic, she was quite proud to be able to make him so nervous. She rolled her eyes at him, "Don't worry Moody, If I was going to attack you I would have done it already, I want to show you something, can I?"

Moody nodded, "You better."

"Look," From the bag, she pulled a sword which looked medieval and she used it to brush aside half-drunk cups of alcohol and placed it on the coffee table. The cups grew arms and legs and scuttled away under the sofa where a horrid scratching and scuttling could be heard after. Moody's magic eyes watched them, though his real one settled on the sword.

"You shouldn't have brought that into my house," Moody growled, but he didn't seem too upset because he leaned in closer. "What is it?"

"It's one of seven cursed items called the 'Grants Artefacts,' Wisdom Grant was an American wizard during the civil war who used these against the southern soldiers. When all seven artefacts are combined they have the power to reanimate corpses, call up ghosts, curse whole civilizations of people with hauntings and mass hysteria. You know the legend of the headless horseman right?"

"Yes," Moody studied it, "I don't suppose this is harmless when separated from its siblings?"

"Far from it," as she said it, a floorboard creaked, a patter of feet ran across the floor upstairs and the sofa shivered.

Moody grumbled, "you won't be keeping that thing here. How long until it gets bored and attacks us?"

Arundel pushed her black hair back from her shoulders, "About five or so minutes I suppose. There are dark wizards hunting to reunite them. Hoping to resurrect one particular ghost."

"So you want my help to destroy this?" Moody caught her expression, "What?"

"You can't destroy them without having them all together."

Moody waved an impatient hand for her to continue. "Figures-" he muttered.

"The American wizards have the four already, they have been testing their powers on Muggles, there's been a number of horrific murders and mass shootings. But, there are rumoured to be three in England, this is one, there are two others missing."

"And…" The sofa started to creep across the floor she could see the glint of light on sharp teeth between the sofa cushions.

"And what?" Arundel smiled and put the sword back into the tiny bag. "I don't give this stuff up for free, Moody. If you want me to give you more information you'll need to pay me for it."

"Vulture," he spat. "Who found the American one's hum? If I were to track your movements over the last year would I find a lot of time out of the country?"

Arundel stayed quiet, she didn't feel threatened by his disdain. She knew what she was, muggles called people in her position 'weapons dealers' sitting on the fence between conflicts and exploiting desperate people by supplying to both sides.

"I'll arrest you for being in possession of dangerous artefacts."

"You can try," she shot him a smile, "Hard to disarm somebody when they have no wand. Do you really want to try me in a duel? Last time didn't go so well for you."

Moody's lip curled. "How much?"

"A thousand galleons," she watched him turn white, she knew he didn't have the money to hand. She didn't really want his money, she was just trying to drive up prices.

"Give me three days and we will negotiate. Where will I find you?"

"Diagon Ally, I'll be at Borgin and Burkes."

Moody sniffed, "Of course you will," he muttered and showed her out. "I need to move," he muttered. "Every bugger knows where I live."


	2. Chapter 2

Caractacus Burke and the Tiny Book

13B Knockturn Alley looked just the same as it had two years previous, which was the last time Arundel had visited. She stood in the rain casting a critical eye over the peeling gold and green paint, and the bulging, rotten, wooden frames of the windows. The sign that creaked in the gentle wind was hardly legible. She pushed the door and was displeased to see it stuck and the bell above the door missed its chime.

"Seriously, anybody would think you were out of business," she called as she walked in. The display cabinets were dusty, a bell jar held a severed, shrunken head. And in a cabinet, she saw the same bloodstained pack of cards she had procured for them the last time she had visited. "Are you out of business?" she asked the empty shop. "Have you finally given up?"

A trap door banged behind the counter, Arundel caught a flicker of a reflection in the bell jar. She swung around and waved her hand, almost lazily, Burke's wand flew from his hand. A second flick and it skidded across the floor to her feet.

"No way to treat an old friend Caractacus."

Caractacus' eyes narrowed and a thin tongue licked across dry lips, which cracked into a wheesles smile. "Arundel, always a pleasure."

She turned his wand so it pointed into her chest and held it out for him to take. "Why so jumpy?"

"Something new, something exciting but not something…." he shrugged a conspirators shrug. "Not a day to be raided by ministers using a pollyjuce. Attacking you is the only way to be sure, I had to see how you reacted."

"How did you know the rumours are true?"

"You must teach me how you do it. Many wizards would kill to be able to work without a wand."

"I'll write a book when I'm old and have nothing better to do," Arundel laughed and she walked to the trapdoor where a thorned plant writhed in an attempt to get away from the light. "Who's it going to?"

"Phadious Weaver."

"The herbalist who lives in Scotland?"

Burke nodded once and kicked the trap door closed with the toe of his hobnailed boot. "You think my shops looking bad?"

"Borgen used to deal with the upkeep, where is he?"

"In Germany, buying cursed jewellery."

Arundel rolled her eyes and she moved between the shelves studying what was on offer, "Finally some new stock?"

"Nothing to get excited about, a number of the pure families are paying me retainer fees to keep contraband items safe. I said about the ministry rades, they get off on it I swear."

"You're not keeping things in the shop?" she asked.

Burke motioned to the chimney, "Elsewhere. Enough about me, Arundel, You've been away for ages, come through to the back and tell me about your travels."

"Just a sec-" She turned to the bell above the door and ran her hand across it, the green faded metal transformed into new polished brass, she flicked it and the bell chimed. Burke held open the back door for her and together they moved into a very comfortable sitting room, with furniture that had once been grand but was weathered and faded by time and use. A fire crackled, candles flickered, and a black kettle bubbled on a hot plate by the flames. Burkes' owl watched Arundel with wide orange eyes as she slid down onto the sofa and sighed. "It's been a while since I've been around friends."

Burke's smile was indulgent, but his guard had not dropped enough for her statement to be reciprocated. As much as she loathed to admit it, his coldness upset her. "Where _have_ you been?" the old man asked as he scratched at the wild hair of his receding hairline. "I saw Severus Snape. He said you left England and he didn't seem happy about it. Then I saw Avery and _he_ said you'd better not come back any time soon or he'd hex you for what you did."

"Yeah..." she brushed those comments off with a flick of her hand and a roll of her eyes as if they meant nothing to her. "Well, I've been in America, Europe and Africa," she kept direct eye contact, and a smile spread across her face when she saw the pang of greed in Burkes eyes. "Show me the book, Burke, please."

"I can't afford your fees."

"Don't be like that. We're friends, we help each other out," she hoped she sounded desperate enough for his resolve to melt.

He hesitated, then from around his neck he pulled a long chain with a tiny golden book pendant on the end. He pulled it off and placed it on the table in front of her then, muttering under his breath, he passed his wand over the top and the book grew into a thick tome. But the spells didn't stop there, she watched as he removed curse after curse until finally he opened the book for her and let her scan down the items on the pages.

These were lists of objects that people had requested Burke find for them. The buyer's names were not listed, of course. She pointed without speaking to three items and Burke made a mental note of "Fresh Dragon Tooth, Harpy's Voicebox and The Sand of Isambard," but she saw the object she was looking for on the list, there was a request for the Grants Artifacts, she knew who would have contacted Burke to put it on the list too.

"That last one, the Sands, is going to be the hardest to locate and none of them is going to be cheap for your buyers."

"Or me," Burke muttered. "But they will pay well if I can get the items."

"What about the other list?" Arundel asked and Burke closed the book, waved his wand across the surface and opened it again. Now she could see what Burke had to sell. These were the items that could see him put in Azkaban, they were items whose previous owners had died or been incarcerated, sometimes they were left over stock when a deal had gone bad.

"This one and this one are easy to find buyers for," she said, pointing to Root of Unicorn Horn and Centaurs Finger. "I know a family who collects these…" she pointed to four potions from the list.

Burke finally seemed satisfied, he leaned in closer, "Now we talk money."

Arundel smiled her sweetest smile, "Your buyers will pay fifty for the tooth, and two hundred for the voice box, but we're talking thousands for the Sands. You'll want to push the prices by ten percent at least right? And I want seventy percent as a finders fee."

Burke scratched the back of his head, "You're killing me," he sniffled. "I can't get as much as you think, people are worried in this market. "The Dark Lord is dead, the Ministry is breathing down our neck, lots of people want to sell but not many want to buy."

"Do you want to go and get a tooth from a dragon? do you picture Borgan ripping the voice box from a still live Harpy or battling Dementors for the Sands of Isambard?"

Burke pouted.

"I do these jobs for you because I enjoy the risk, but I don't do it for free."

"Sixty."

Arundel made a show of shaking her head, "no, I won't put myself at risk for sixty."

"Sixty-five then."

Her hand shot out, Burke grasped it, it was the number they always settled on anyway. "Sixty-forty on the other list, as always?" he asked.

"As always."

"And the same vault to deposit the cash?"

Arundel nodded, "I've got some things to sell too."

Burke smiled and started the complex motion of spells to put his book away and she pulled out the little bag and began to pull out a number of choice objects and potions. Burke cast a shrewd eye across her wears. Picking up items and examining them in the firelight with one eye squinting around a magnifying glass he pulled from his pocket. She watched him appraise, try and find faults he could knock her down on or questions over the purity of potions. "Some fine objects here," he told her. "Some rare."

"I know."

"What did you want for the lot it?"

"Seven hundred."

Burke pretended to consider the sum, he sucked air through his teeth and reexamined some of the items, it was a dance they did that never got old. "See here, this mark? See this discolouration, see how the metal fades." he would say as he studied. "No," he concluded. "Five at most, and I only do that because you're dear to me."

"Six."

Air hissed through teeth again, he shook his head, "there must be something else… what else can I do?"

"You could let me stay for a few days, above the shop like old times. You could be out of the way when Mad Eye comes to call."

Burke flinched, "What?" he asked. The dance forgot.

"And If you say yes and ask no questions I'll let you have the lot for five."


	3. Chapter 3

A wizard comes for a drink

On the third day, Burke made it his business to be out of London. It was a grey and dismal November afternoon. Wet brown leaves found it important to stick to the small warped glass pains of the upstairs windows. The shop, freshly cleaned and painted by Arundel, was empty save for an occasional haunting presence brought about by the cursed Grant's Sword. Although the sword was contained by Arundel's charmed bag, It had grown board haunting the inside and wanted to expand out into the shop. It was too weak a presence to do much more than slamming a few doors, make candles flutter and creak the odd floorboard or two. But even that presence was enough to make a shrewd wizard curious, and Burke was as shrewd as they came, she would need to leave here as soon as she could.

At twenty-six minutes past three, the chimney burst green flame. Arundel put down her book, a very battered and often revisited 'History of Magic' and looked up expecting to see Mad Eye. Much to her surprise a taller, older and far more dignified Wizard shook the dust from his foot and bashed out his hat.

"Dumbledore," Arundel sat forward with her mouth hanging open, he'd never come to call on her before.

"I hope you don't mind me dropping in," the Wizard told her. "This new, muggle look is quite becoming, it's very….understated."

She wondered what Dumbledore meant, and caught a glimpse of herself in a shaded mirror. Her hair was long and black, pushed over one shoulder and platted to keep it from her face. Her nose was slightly upturned, eyes were dark black, eyebrows and cheekbones were high and lips that were only fashionable in the twenty's, with slight wrinkles in the smile lines. She didn't think she was that good looking, but she had never been told she was ugly. Today she had a purple and black jumper on, with leggings and ankle warmers. The Jumper had sleeves so long she had to roll them up, and the body was so baggy that it reached her knees.

"I'm cold," she shrugged, "And the shops closed."

"Are you working here again?"

"I don't think I ever stopped," she laughed. "It's been a long time Headmaster. Last time I saw you I sold you a scrying bowl, didn't I?"

"Pensieve, It's been very useful."

"Did Mad Eye tell you where I was?"

Dumbledore nodded, "He didn't want to talk to you, he asked I come instead."

"I'm hurt," Arundel pulled her sleeves up, "Do you want a cup of tea?"

"No, but I would like a small glass of brandy. I know Messrs Borgin and Burke have a fantastic selection."

"You'll have to wait whilst I get past some devils ivy."

Dumbledore wasn't to be put off, so Arundel left him in the living room, returned to the shop, opened the trap door and cast Lumos to push it into the corner as she pulled a bottle of brandy from the shelves and climbed back out again. In the living room, she poured for both of them and sank down onto the sofa opposite the Hogwarts Headmaster. "So," she said.

"So," he echoed.

They both drank, keeping direct eye contact, each closing off their thoughts from the other whilst simultaneously trying to pry for information. Arundel couldn't take the silence and broke it first, "What's Moody told you?"

"He thinks you're a traitor, he's very displeased."

"Oh?" Arundel rolled her eyes. "He's so dramatic. Both sides think that. I never got involved in politics. I didn't spy."

"That I find remarkable. The Dark Lord didn't take kindly to nonchalance for his cause. You're as nonchalant as they come but somehow he didn't take offence to that. You must have been doing something of great value for him."

"I was a necessary evil, I suppose, for both sides. Don't forget Dumbledore the ministry had no option but to treat me the same."

"It must have been exhausting," Dumbledore chuckled indulgently, but she couldn't tell if he was mocking her or admiring her.

Arundel raised her glass, "I'm still here."

"You could have been a valuable soldier in our order, I remember how your teachers were in awe of you at Hogwarts. We had such high expectations and yet you have done nothing remarkable or memorable. Even the laziest of wizards had the opportunity to shine during our recent dark times."

"Oh, don't do that Albus. Emotional bullying isn't your style. I'm happy with my choices."

Albus Dumbledore said nothing, it wasn't clear if he was surprised, amused or annoyed by what she had said. She watched him for clues but didn't find any. "Moody was very upset," he reiterated with a wagging finger.

"Because I have something to sell, but he thinks I should give it away out of what? Duty?"

"I believe you have it in this room? I keep seeing a hopefully ghoulish apparition in the mirror and every so often something blows across the back of my neck."

Arundel grinned, "Did Moody tell you how much I want?"

Dumbledore waved her into silence. "Why don't you sell the whole lot to the American Society of Black Wizardry? Death eaters in all but name, an unpleasant lot to work with, just your kind of people."

"Maybe I will."

"And yet you came to the Auras?"

"Maybe I get more money for selling them separately."

Arundel sipped her port and considered very carefully how truthful she wanted to be. She remembered how Dumbledore had been close to Grindelwald once, as much as he cultivated the look of a wonderful, charming, good-natured old man he was just as sneaky and underhanded as she was, and just as willing to flirt with dark magic. If anybody would understand the game she was playing it would be him.

"Before I speak to you, drink this-" she pulled a bottle from her bag. Dumbledore took it and held it up to the light. Without asking what it was he poured the whole bottle into his mouth and swallowed, it was very trusting of him and actually touched her deeply that he would put his life in her hands like that. After a few seconds, he hiccuped and smoke came out of his ears, but nothing else happened, he didn't turn back into anybody else. Satisfied, Arundel carried on speaking. "My code is simple, If I sell to one side I sell something of equal power or value to the other. A group of angry wizards with the Grant's Artefacts could pose a real threat so soon after the war. I see this as restoring balance."

Dumbledore's eyes narrowed and he started laughing. "You make me drink poison to tell me a lie."

"I'm offering the Ministry Grants Sword, and I will reclaim the other two, for a cost of course, and should the ministry be willing to pay I'll give you the names of the Americans with the other artefacts as you need them all together to destroy them."

"How old are you now?" Dumbledore asked.

"Why?"

"So jaded for somebody so young," the old man sighed. "So driven by commerce, have you no notion of Duty?"

"I'm a businesswoman." Arundel snapped. "Duty won't pay my rent."

"If that's what concerns you I have a job at the school; Care of Magical Creatures. Come to Hogsmeade for a job interview if you wish." Dumbledore stood up and from his pocket he drew out a pipe. "We won't buy the sword from you, Arundel," he said, and with that, he lit his pipe, chucked flue powder into the fire and walked into the flames. She stood watching the hearth with her mouth open and then very slowly she extended her middle finger and snarled.


	4. Chapter 4

The War and Peace of Arundal Granville

Arundal stood with Narcissa Malfoy studying a blond child as he played with one of the albino peacocks. "He's not very…."

"I know," his mother sighed. "Dignified. Apparently, you can train that into them."

Arundal chuckled, "And how are his parents? Still recovering from the Imperius curse?"

Narcissa gave her a haughty sniff. "Oh yes, we are all very much recovered. It's cost us a lot."

"Is that why you called me here?"

The blond child let out a scream as the peacock tried to peck at him. Narcissa watched as the child screwed up his face and the peacock turned into a wooden toy. "Little Draco's got some fight in him."

"He needs to stop that, he's going to get a caution," she poked him with her toe. "Stop it child."

"I do like Malfoy Manor," Arundal sighed as she looked around the estate's lavish gardens. "Wiltshire's a lovely part of the world."

Narcissa wasn't listening. She was still poking Draco with her toe, trying to push him so he faced away from her. "I don't know what to do with him. He's too young to teach and he smiles all the time, I don't know why he's so happy. I can't have a conversation with him."

"Oh, he'll grow up soon enough, and turn sour like the rest of us."

"As long as he's not as snivelling and pathetic as his father." she bit her lip, "You know, I might have to use a memory wipe on you. Lucius is- he's not himself, I do love him though."

"Don't worry Ciss, it's only natural to be angry with the situation. Macnair is working as an executioner for the Ministry now, he disposes of dangerous creatures. Avery's gone back to his mums. Even Greyback's gone into hiding in Germany, I saw him recently, but I didn't stick around for long as you can imagine. Everybody's doing what they need to do to survive. I'm sure he's dead but if he is out there somewhere he'll have no choice but to accept it, or he won't have many followers left."

"It's so easy for you to talk about the Dark Lord like he's a puppy, isn't it?"

"That's never been true."

"We're reduced to houselves. Our name is worse than shit and those filthy mudbloods who think they won spit at us in the streets." she turned her nose up, but Arundel saw only relief in her eyes.

"I suppose this little creature is all that matters now," Arundel put her hands in her pockets and studied baby Draco.

"You think my husband will let it lie? He's furious, he has a dream of blood purity that will never be realised."

"Am I here to restore your good name?"

Narcissa motioned to one of her servants to take Draco and she turned and started to walk back to the house. "Lucius wants some items hidden before the ministry inevitably raid us. We need to seem repentant, he's in London at the moment speaking to Fudge. soon enough the Ministry will rely on so much Malfoy gold nobody will dare touch us. He'll be back in an hour or so," She laughed, but it was humourless and exhausted. "Come with me."

Nacissa took Arundel down to the vaults below the house, here the Malfoy family kept all their contraband. The things that were too valuable or too dangerous to have anywhere else in the house. She moved to a locked cabinet and took out five items, including a book and a necklace and handed them to Arundel. "He gave Lucius this as a gift, right?" she muttered as she put the items into her charmed bag. "It looks so... boring."

"I don't need to tell you how important these items are to our family. Here," she pulled a chequebook from her pocket and wrote a promise for two hundred gallons.

"They will go in my vault. I'll deliver them personally, and as a reassurance I'll give you this too," Arundel pulled a quill and a piece of parchment from her charmed bag and she wrote _upon death or failure to return loan after five years, Arundel Granville hereby states that she owes the sum worth of five items from her vault or a total of three thousand Gallons._ Narcissa read it and seemed satisfied. "How would you like it transfigured?"

"Perhaps a ring, silver with an emerald?" She held out her hand, and dutifully Arundel folded and wrapped the parchment around her finger and then passed her own hand across it, muttering as she did. The paper turned silver, shrunk and transformed.

"Does it fit?"

"Beautifully, thank you for doing this for us," Narcissa turned and moved to the stairs and the two women walked up together. "Your clothes?" Narcissa asked as they ascended, as if approaching a delicate subject. "They are very…" she let the distaste linger. Arundel grinned and pushed the trapdoor open.

"Very muggle?" she asked. "One has to blend in Ciss."

"Well," Narcissa looked a little nervous at that and she took a pot of flue powder from the mantle and stood looking into the open lid. "It would make me very happy if you could join us for dinner tonight, we're having pheasant and we were going to play swivenhodge."

Arundel had to laugh, the idea of Narcissa on a broomstick was too funny not to. Luckily the proud woman saw the funny side too and she tilted her chin proudly, "I'm quite good you know."

"I'll be there, and I'll dress appropriately too."

"I'm very happy you've come back," Narcissa told her. "I've grown quite lonely you know. My sisters are gone, my friends are in hiding and my family name is in tatters. You don't know how welcome a friendly face is at a time like this."

Arundel put her hand on Narcissa's arm and couldn't help feel moved by her outburst. "I'll see you for dinner," she said.

Arundel stood looking up the Doric columns, and twisted snow white stonework of the Gringotts Bank. It towered over the other shops of Diagon Alley and the sky behind it was such a dark shade of grey that it made the stonework glow. There was such an unnatural light, lemon-scented and yet so bleak, that she thought it must be cursed, the world was an unhealthy monochromatic yellow. The sign above the bank stated 'Fortius Quo Fidelius,' Strength Through Loyalty. It was a saying that had always peeved her. Loyalty to what? she thought as she ran up the stairs to the arched front door. Money, most likely. What other loyalty was there, fear?

And, if money was the object of devotion, here were the disciples. Rows of desks extended through the marble hallway, from the great doors to the entrance of the vaults. Arundel made her way to one of them and cleared her throat. The Goblin looked at her down his long nose. "Granville," he sighed, with a parchment dry voice. "I'll get the master."

After a good half hour wait, a very old Goblin made his way through the crowds of wizards. He was dressed in lavish golden robes, with red velvet trim. His beard was nearly brushing his feet. Some people turned to study him, others whispered when they saw the bank manager in person. It was very rare indeed for somebody so esteemed to deal with a customer directly.

"Good to see you Mr Gingold."

"The usual checks apply my dear," he croaked, "Do follow me."

He led Arundel into the vaults and she gave the goblin a key. He nodded and they got into a minecart. "Hold on," he told her and the thing launched down a shoot into the mines below. It picked up so much speed that sometimes it left the tracks altogether. They passed a waterfall and dragons and down and down they went until they reached vault nine hundred at the bottom of a very tiny shaft which they crawled through and entered a cavern. Here a huge stone snake coiled and with their entry, it began to move, until the head was poised to strike at them.

" _Open for your master,_ " Arundel commanded in Parseltongue, and she cut her finger and held it up. The stone snake's head came close, its tongue flicked as it smelled her blood and then it unhinged its jaw and inside its mouth were stairs.

"May I come in too?" Gringold asked, the eagerness in his voice was clear. Only two goblins were able to come and go from this vault and they both had strong curses put on them to prevent them from talking about what was inside.

"I don't see that it matters if you do," Granville said with a shrug. "But the whole things cursed. If you try and take anything you'll explode."

She showed the goblin up the stairs, unlocked the inner door, and they entered a huge vault crammed with shiny coins and artefacts that an Egyptian pharaoh would have coveted.

"My my," Gingold sighed. "And they say a goblin's greedy."

"That's wicked," Arundel told him with a sharkish smile, she began to pull items out of her charmed purse and deposit them into boxes and cases around the vault. The Malfoy's items she put in a chest, and her own in a second box.

"Is it true? They say he who must not be named used your vault as his own."

Arundel paused and studied the Goblin, "There are some rumours you would best not pay credence to." She took the money and then turned to leave. "How is business, Gingold?" she asked as they left the snakes mouth and made their way back up the shaft to the cart.

"Oh," he sighed. "It'd be better if you worked for us again. We missed your curse breaking skills, a better tomb raider there never was."

"High praise indeed," she muttered as they clambered back in and set off. "I suppose Lucius has been active recently? I have a check to cash from him."

"I can't discuss other clients comings and goings but he's making a tidy sum from his muggle investments. You have too actually. We deposited another eight hundred gallons into your vault yesterday."

They talked economics the whole way back to the surface. Gingold bid her good day at the door, and much to her displeasure the sky was a waterfall.

In the shop, she changed from her oversized jumper and leggings into dress robes in black, with silver and purple trim. She wasn't sure why she was bothering to make such an effort, perhaps it was just nice to have people want to be around her. It didn't happen much these days. She'd brought a floor-length cape with the ability to repel water from the dress shop on her way back that she was quite looking forward to wearing. And she paid extra attention to her hair and makeup. When she was satisfied, which took about half an hour of preening and re-preening, she took the flu back to the Malfoys.

Narcissa was waiting for her with a glass of prosecco which she handed over after Arundel undid her cloak. "Dobby will take your cloak and hang it up, I need to keep an eye on the cooking but Lucius is in the parlour. You look lovely by the way."

Arundel chuckled and let the house elf do his job, he was a young nervous thing with very large ears and he looked at her with wide pleading eyes. "What?" she asked.

"Esteemed one- I..."

"Get on with your job," Narcissa snarled and with a flick of her wand like a whip he squealed and made himself scarce. "I do miss the Black family elf, Kreacher never would have been so obstinate. Do you have problems with yours?"

"I have no idea how our house elf is performing. I haven't seen my parents for years Narcissa,"

"Oh," Narcissa looked genuinely sorry, "I hope I never have such a rift with Draco."

"You know my family Ciss, we're fine, just distant from one another. They send me postcards sometimes you know."

"Your mother's book Bloodworks was fascinating. She actually argues for breeding with muggles. The section on squibs being the product of inbreeding was fascinating."

"The Darklord thought so, he spoke to her at length about it before she published. Some of his work is published under her name." At the mention of Voldemort, the corner of Narcissa's mouth twitched and Arundel thought she seemed regretful. "You said Lucius is in the parlour?"

Narcissa nodded, and made herself scarce as if she had said something uncouth. Arundel crossed the hall and paused by the parlour door, she could hear two voices coming from inside but they spoke so low she couldn't make out who they belonged to. She pushed the door and leaned on the frame, but when she saw who was with Lucius her heart fell. This evening had been doctored, the speed that the Malfoys acted to put it all together was impressive.

"Arundel," The head of the Malfoy family jumped up from the table, where a copy of the newspaper the Daily Proffit had been spread out. Arundel decided to ignore Lucius' guest and she hugged her host warmly. "Thank you for joining us, It's an honour to have you in our home again."

"It's good to see you. How's your head?" she asked with a huge smile, "I hear you had an awful spell cast on you?"

"Oh," Lucius rolled his eyes and pushed long blond hair back from his face, he nearly blushed, "I said what I needed to. I think our family will survive this but it's cost me dearly. Both financially and personally. Snape's had to do a lot of grovelling too, haven't you?"

Severus had the decency to try to make himself look busy whilst Arundel spoke to Lucius but now all attention was on him. He looked up from the Prophit and made an agreeable noise, but his eyes lingered on Arundel too long and a deep uneasy shame settled in her breast.

"I've avoided grovelling all together, you'll be pleased to know. It's business as usual, better than usual actually."

"So good that your back in England speaking to Auras?" Snape asked. Lucius' smile flickered. He looked back to Arundel with the question written across his face. But Arundel wasn't going to allow herself to feel uncomfortable by Snape's scrutiny, she was peeved however that he knew. Somebody must have said something, Burke perhaps, on the day he made himself scarce.

"Of course I have. They pay well too you know, no bites this time, however, a compleat bust."

"What were you trying to sell them?" Lucius wasn't to be deterred, "Perhaps I'll purchase it."

Arundel's smile grew as she realised Lucius was trying to use Legilimency on her. "You know Malfoy," she said almost flippantly, "Even Voldemort himself couldn't read my thoughts. Your skills are improving though, no need to use a wand now, very impressive."

Malfoy jerked as if he had been stung.

"And though he _is_ dead, he did leave some business for me to attend to."

The proud, pale man coloured with shame. "Arundel," he sighed and looked away. "I trust you, I always have. You are one of our closest friends, but there are so many of us who question the nature of your work. If you just came back for good, if you stopped supplying the blood traitors and muggle born scum with artefacts too…"

"Do you think I care what people say about me? I have my orders, Lucius."

Snape cleared his throat, both of them turned to study him. Arundel's hands hooked onto her waist. "We're all adrift," he said. "And clutching at the debris of what was. So let's turn our attention to other things rather than complaining about the past."

"Like what?" She asked, unable to keep the displeasure from her voice. Snape's eyes lingered on her but she couldn't read his thoughts, she never could, and his face was as devoid of emotion as it ever was.

"Reverse engineering this potion for one, the Daily Profit's quiz section is getting interesting. Slughorn's writing it."

Lucius barked a laugh, "I'm going to see where my wife is." He didn't leave enough time for Arundel to say she was coming too so she was left in the parlour with Snape, who made it his business to completely ignore her. The clock ticking on the wall seemed to want to fill the silence as much as possible but in the process became maddening. She was sure Snape was smiling as he drummed his fingers on the table. Arundel sighed and came to sit down, she took the paper from him and looked at the competition with a sigh. _"This is a draft that turns its subjects blind to all that they do not wish to see. It holds extracts of confusion and extracts of forgetfulness and some of a mirrored world."_ Arundel read the text out loud and then rolled her eyes and handed it back to Snape. "Merlin's Beard Sev," she muttered.

"There are six hundred or so confusion based potions," Snape told her. "Cross-referenced with those that have the same ingredients as Forgetfulness-"

"It's called Merlin's Beard."

"What?"

"Extract of Valium root, four parts water to three parts unicorn milk, a Bezoar stone crushed not sliced and ginger, garlic and white cloud moonflower."

Snape's sallow expression set on his face, he blinked once then sat back and folded the paper away. "Welcome back," he told her, his voice was incredibly dry.

Arundel started to laugh, "I did it this morning, I've been puzzling over it all day."

The tension was broken, but it came back as Arundel's laughter faded. Snape ran his thin fingers across the edge of the paper as he studied his nails, and Arundel knew that pleasantries would just fall flat until they had properly addressed the issue between them.

"You look good. Tanned. You've been away?"

"Yes."

"Where did you go?"

Was the hurt she heard through his voice put there on purpose in an attempt to make her feel guilty? Arundel leant back on her chair and made a careful study of the wood grain of the table top. "I couldn't stay in England with everything happening the way it did. With you putting-" she stopped. "I'll talk to you Severus, but not here and not like this."

"Where then? How am I to know if you will still be here in the morning? Will it be like last time where you promise me we can talk and then I find out three months later you are in Egypt, with a man called Faro." Snape chucked the prophet across the table inraged.

Arundel didn't respond, she watched as Snape mastered his emotions, brushed his hair out of his face and took a steadying breath.

"What happened to him anyway?"

"He died."

"Oh."

"Don't worry Sev, he had it coming." Even Arundel knew that sounded overly harsh, and noise outside the door made her aware that their guests were listening in through the keyhole. "I said we can talk. I mean it."

"Well, thank you so much for allowing me the chance to speak to you. You're so gracious," His voice dripped sarcasm.

"There's no need to be passive aggressive Severus," Arundel snapped. "Your acting like a child." She'd had enough she leant over the back of her chair and with a flick of her hand the door banged open. Narcissa and Lucius startled and stood up looking very flustered.

"The, um…." Narcissa sniffed and regained her dignity, "The food is served."

Arundel stood up and swept from the room without once looking at Severus again.

Dinner was awkward, Narcissa and Lucius sat at the heads of their table and Snape and Arundel were opposite each other. Narcissa played a fantastic host and made sure to steer the conversation away from anything that could spark a personal argument between Snape and Arundel, but it meant that conversation was forced.

"There's an unusual amount of hauntings at Hogwarts at the moment," Snape told them to keep the conversation going. "We've had to close off the lower vaults to staff and students."

"The castle has it's ghosts, what's new?"

"The nature of it is...unnatural."

Arundel tilted her head as she listened, but she said nothing, hoping that somebody would pick up the conversation more.

"That school is run by a menace," Lucius complained. "He's totally addled, he can't be trusted around children. I've always said that it should be you, Severus. You're more talented than the lot of them, and at least with you at the helm, the students wouldn't be put in mortal danger so often."

"There would certainly be less rule breaking," Snape muttered. "The Slytherin dungeons have had blood pouring down the wall for the last few days. One of the students reported that something tried to hang them in the night. We've been temporarily relocated from the dungeons to a tower block in the Estwing."

"Is it term time?" Arundel asked.

"It is, I'm back to work tomorrow but I don't have any classes until the afternoon."

She nodded but didn't take the conversation any further and Lucius turned the topic to the Ministry of Magic and his attempts to bribe Cornelius Fudge.


	5. Chapter 5

The picture and the painting

After sending a letter ahead to Hogwarts, Arundel took the night bus from Borgin and Burkes to Hogsmeade. She arrived in the early hours of the morning and unwilling to walk the distance between the bus stop and the Hogshead tavern she flew and levitated her trunk in front of her. Ever grateful that she had learned unassisted flight, despite how cold it was, she alighted on the doorstep knowing that as soon as she knocked she would be waking up the proprietor and upsetting him no end. She reached up for the knocker but the door swung in as if somebody had been waiting for her. The Barman peered out from the depths of the pub, his striking blue eyes shone from a mass of wiry grey hair and beard. He puffed out his cheeks and bristled in his beard, then opened the door wider. "Albus said you might decide to stay here."

"Hello Alberforth."

"You came on the night bus?"

Arundel nodded and moved past the tall old man into a very dirty little bar. The sawdust crinkled under her feet as she dragged her trunk behind her.

"You staying long?"

"Depends on Albus," Arundel told him.

"Always does."

Arundel nodded to a painting hanging behind the bar, "Nice goat."

The proprietor nodded agreement, "One of the finest." He motioned for her to follow him upstairs. "I would offer you a drink but it's very early in the morning and I've turned off the tap. There's firewhisky if you want, just help yourself and I'll settle up with you when you go." Aberforth sounded exhausted, as soon as Arundel was in her room he turned and went to bed.

The next hour was spent killing bedbugs. Arundel's magic was fine for large acts, but being wandless it was harder for her to conduct subtle small spells. She treated it as an exercise, but by the time she was satisfied that everything was dead, the sun had started to come up across the valley. She slept until lunchtime and then busied herself with shopping and exploring Hogsmeade. It had been a long time since she last came to this village, she didn't really like being so close to Hogwart; school hadn't been fun. She'd never liked how hard it was to remain unnoticed, Slughorn had wanted to collect her in his gifted club, the teachers were constantly going on at her about her talent, people had expectations and all she wanted was to be overlooked. Even before Hogwarts she'd been leading a double life, her father had taught her well in that respect, to always know what other people wanted, to always know their price, their shame, their loves. To be the silent partner.

At lunch, she ate in the Three Broomsticks and observed from a secluded bay window how the professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Snape all came in together. They moved to the bar to buy drinks. McGonagall had a butterbeer, she sipped it with the grace of the cat she could morph into, her hat was under one arm, and her hair was in a tight bun. Flitwick levitated himself high enough to be able to collect his pint, and Snape paid for them, evidently, the professors were hoping to stay for three rounds at least.

They came to a table close enough for her to hear what they were saying. Snape sat facing her and he saw her instantaneously. She smiled and waved, and went back to her newspaper, enjoying how uncomfortable he must have felt.

"The new cohort won't get top OWLS," Flitwick was insisting. "If we can't raise their progress we'll have nobody sitting the NEWT's."

"Don't have such low expectations," McGonagall told him. "We say this every year, and every year the students panic and they study and they do marginally better than we expected."

Snape slid his eyes across to the toilets and back. When Arundel failed to move and sat looking at him with a politely bemused smile he got up as if to leave.

"You alright Severus?" Flitwick asked.

"I must visit the toilet, not that you need to know the regularity of my bladder, Flitwick."

The little charms master sniggered and McGonagall took a sip of her butterbeer and studied him with amusement over the top of her glasses.

Snape lingered, "I don't see what you find so amusing. We all do it."

"I suppose it's just the idea of _you_ doing it. Doing anything remotely human actually Severus," Flitwick turned red and hiccuped, he was drinking firewhisky and it had gone to his head. "All I can picture you doing is, well, working on 'Very Important' things."

"We all urinate." Snape sighed "Even those of us who spend our time on 'very important things.'"

Arundel got up and headed through the door to the toilets, quite fed up with listening to Severus' colleagues discussing his toilet habits. A moment later the door banged, Snape grabbed her arm and frogmarched her past the toilets and through a backdoor into the street. "Why are you here?" he demanded.

Arundel looked down at his hand and back up to him. He let her go and took a step away from her, searching up and down the street for observers. When he found none he shoved his hands in his pockets and asked her again, "Why are you here?" this time it sounded softer.

"You wanted to talk, Severus," it was too obvious a half-truth to escape him.

"No, don't use that spider's web with me Arun, I know you too well."

She bit her lip and tilted her head up to the week sky, "I'm hunting for artefacts. At Hogwarts."

For a moment she thought Severus would attack her, he recoiled and ran a hand down his face whilst studied her like she was a bomb, then he moved in so close they were practically nose to nose. "Are you mad?" he hissed.

"You of all people-"

"Stop talking," Snape commended. "Before you say something you will regret."

"We _need_ to talk."

"And we will Arun," He took her hand, and the uncharacteristic show of affection rendered him mute for a moment. "Apparate to Spinner's End tonight and we'll talk properly."

"I can't I need to stick around to have a job interview."

"You're going for the Care of Magical Creatures Job?" Snape started to laugh. "You?"

Arun smiled at him, "I think it's time I had a career change, don't you?"

Snape turned to look back at the pub, "I need to go back."

She nodded, "There will be an opportunity for us to speak," she assured him. "I'm not going to suddenly disappear."

That night Albus called at the Hogshead, Aberforth grumbled as the tall old man came in through the door, "She's upstairs," he told the headmaster, and in doing so alerted Arundel to Albus' presence. The headmaster took the stairs without hesitation and knocked quietly. Arun called enter and he came in, stooping as he did and he studied the small room, then he looked at the pictures on the walls and asked them to leave their frames.

"So often," he said. "Do people forget that they listen."

"It's remarkable, isn't it," Arundel agreed. "Thank you for seeing me, Headmaster."

"I must say, I'm surprised you are here."

"How so? Times are hard. You refused to buy the sword and I can't afford to continue to operate in this climate, everybody is selling and nobody's buying. If you won't buy the sword, you can at least pay me to work for you."

That tickled Albus Dumbledore. "Well," he sighed. "What knowledge of magical creatures have you?"

"I have an extensive knowledge of them, as you well know."

"I know you have extensive knowledge of their worth, as a hunter would have. But we teach protection of the species, we teach respect for them and cohabitation."

"I have great respect for conservation, Albus, most hunters have." She knew it was a contradiction but she enjoyed saying it for the reaction.

Albus pouted, "it will be a temporary job, until the end of the year."

"That's fine with me."

Albus' eyes glittered a piercing blue, Arundel knew he couldn't read her but he could still make a good guess at what she was about. She was sure he had dropped this job into the conversation on purpose back at Burke's. Knowing his history with Grindelwald, Albus wasn't above playing little games to see how people would react.

"You have never taught before."

"Untrue, actually, I taught a group of Arabian Death Eaters how to wordlessly deflect disarming curses. I taught the same skill to the Arabian Ministry of Magic. It was quite funny to watch the battle that followed. They called it the battle of the silent night."

"Children should be easy compared to that achievement," Dumbledore congratulated her, or mocked her. She wasn't sure which."Hopefully, your ability to install order is as effective as your ability to create chaos. I'll have Professor McGonagall mentor you whilst you are with us."

Arundel swallowed annoyance, but she nodded agreement. It would be much harder to hunt for the grants artefacts with that old bat watching, "Does this mean you are going to give me the job?"

"It does miss Granville, don't squander it on petty opportunities to get rich, of which there will be many." Albus stood up, "I will expect you in the morning at seven thirty, Filch will meet you at the gate and show you around, you will have the day to yourself and work will commence on Wednesday." he tipped his hat and left.

The Scottish weather boasted a wind that made her hair a mess and a fine rain that managed to get in between all the layers of her clothes. She wished she had put her waterproof cloak on, but it was so early in the morning that she rolled out of bed and got to the castle as quickly as she could without much thought for good first impressions. The road up to the castle lead through the forbidden forest and numerous fields and she ended up apperating outside the gates rather than walk the whole way. It was impossible, of course, to apparate into the school grounds, and luckily Filch was waiting for her at the gates with a lantern.

"Miss Granville," he muttered. "I've been told to watch out for you." He gave her a look that suggested a double meaning.

"You look well," Arundel told him, but he was still as disgusting as he had been when she was a student here. Still the same lank hair, bulbous nose and puffy, yet hollow skin. Water hung off him in droplets, mixing with the grease from his hair.

"I must say I'm surprised they let you come back here, after all the trouble you caused us before."

"Dumbledore works in mysterious ways," Arundel agreed. "Still no revoke on Educational Decree number Twenty- Nine?"

"No, but I live in hope. I keep my manacles shiny Miss Granville. I do indeed. They lack respect these days, children. They wouldn't dare do half the things they do if they knew I'd be waiting to give em' a lashing."

Arundel thought the idea of a grown man lashing out at a child was a bit desperate. She pulled a face and laughed inwardly, but Filch thought she was agreeing with him.

"I can see you'll not take their nonsense, Professor."

The first time he'd used 'professor,' she noted, and so must be growing in his esteem.

"Tell me about your cat Filch, Mrs Norris."

"What's to tell, she's a good creature, loyal to the bone. I got her as a baby. Uncommonly fine cat…"

The bonding exercise with the unpleasant caretaker took her up to the doors of Hogwarts itself, by the time they entered the castle Arundel thought he would talk to her about anything. Filch was a gossip, and very happy to have somebody to talk to. She could see why people didn't like him, in everything he said and did a meanness ran through that made her feel incredibly uncomfortable.

"Do you want a map?" Filch asked her as they walked through the lower floor corridors. "It's easy to get lost and there are a number of places out of bounds at the moment."

"I'm sure I'll be ok, I'll need you to show me to my rooms though Filch."

"They're attached to your office." Filch made no move to show her, now he was back inside the castle he seemed itching to be elsewhere. "I read your mother's book," he told her.

Arundel winced, "Oh?"

"I think she's right. Bad blood will out you know."

"Oh." She hadn't expected that from a squib. "I'm sure she will keep writing, perhaps I can get you a signed copy. She may even like to interview you one day."

Filch's eyes widened in delight and he grew a few feet in his pride, "I'd like that, I really would." Filch's cat appeared around the corner, "I must go, professor, if you leave your trunk by the door the houseleves will take it to your room."

Filch practically skipped away and chuckling to herself Arundel levitated her trunk and set off up to the fourth floor to the care of magical creatures classroom, she knew that her office must be somewhere close.


	6. Chapter 6

Crups and Clabberts

It took longer than she expected to navigate the corridors but she eventually found the classroom. She pushed the heavy oak door open with her foot and started to drag her trunk inside, but a throat cleared and she dropped it.

"Professor," some habits die hard, and feeling like she was about to be told off by her old Transfiguration teacher was one of them. She had to remind herself that she was no longer a student and McGonagall was not her superior.

"I must say," the upright, severe woman looked at her with heavy-lidded distaste. "When Professor Dumbledore told me who he had appointed I was more than a little surprised."

Arundel straightened and studied McGonagall. She'd always wondered who would win in a duel, but today was not the day to find out. "You're my mentor," she said, keeping any kind of emotion from her voice.

"I am. I've come to induct you on to our staff. You will find miss Granville, that teaching here is very much harder than being a student."

Arundel doubted that, but she didn't voice her thoughts and in response dragged her trunk further into the room and sat on it as the door swung closed. McGonagall picked up a folder of papers and swept around the desk, crossed the floor with catlike speed, and handed them to her without even the slightest smile. "You will find a timetable and a year plan in there. The year plan is broken down into termly subject areas for your classes. You teach third years to seventh years, OWL's and NEWTS. You will take a registrar at the start of each class and you will set and mark homework. Grades will be collected the week before last at the end of each term, three times a year. Behaviour infractions are usually dealt with through detentions, I suggest you set detentions which have some bearing on your subject or the infraction. Filch has a list of banned objects. Don't put your students in the way of irreversible harm. Turn up for your lessons on time and be prepared for them."

Arundel flicked through the pack and noted that she had both Monday and Friday free of lessons but taught a full day on Tuesday to Thursday, that was not something she would complain about.

"We meet at seven thirty sharp for head teachers briefing, regardless of if we have duties in the day, we eat with our students in the great hall. Sometimes we go to Hogsmeade for lunch and on Quidditch days or events lessons might be collapsed. There's a year schedule in your pack. If you feel so inclined, you may run after-school clubs or activities."

"What about resourcing?" Arundel asked as she continued to flick through the pack. "Boggarts, Cornish pixies, Grindylows. Hinkypunks. Inferius, kappa, redcaps… Don't tell me the students will read a book and never work with these creatures."

"Ask and you will receive. You have autonomy over what happens in your classes Miss Granville if you want to make the OWL or NEWT test harder you can if you want to add more creatures you can, But the Ministry has a prescribed curriculum which must be covered." McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "If you want students to do well teach thoroughly, not quickly."

"Where does the money come from to run this place? I've always wanted to know."

McGonagall looked confused, "The Ministry, of course."

"What all of it? They are a bunch of tightfisted old bastards, this place must cost a fortune to run!"

The professor raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Should you wish to make a donation-"

Arundel smirked.

"Well." McGonagall had enough, she turned and swept to the door. "The day is your's Miss Granville, don't waste it."

"Hang on," Arundel called after her, "Where's my bedroom."

McGonagall's lips grew very thin, "What on earth makes you think we can afford such a luxury as our own bed, Miss Granville?" She wrenched open the door and left with her nose in the air.

"Your joking right?" Arundel asked as the door closed. "You must be joking."

The door didn't answer. Arundel lay back on her trunk and flicked through the lesson plans for her classes. When she had finished reading the realisation hit home that she would be expected to teach tomorrow. She thought it would be simple but this didn't seem so easy any more. What had she expected? To wing it? These lesson plans required a lot of work, she didn't know the curriculum and didn't have any of the resources, and the idea of teaching children who didn't care at all for the subject seemed insurmountable.

"Shit," she muttered and she opened her trunk. Inside steps led down into darkness, she climbed in and came out in a very comfortable lounge and kitchenette. She put the kettle on, spread the next day's lessons out on the table in front of her and with a hot cup of tea in front of her she read through what was expected. She would have four classes tomorrow. Two short third years, one longer fifth and sixth-year class, she was supposed to be introducing them to various tame animals but the more she looked at the work the less she liked it.

"What am I going to do?" she muttered, picturing the thirty or so students who would be looking at her to teach them and judging her on mundane objectives like 'was it fun.' She should be looking for the Grants Artifacts, but she didn't want to get kicked out before she had a chance to find them. "What am I-" she frowned and moved over to her bookshelf where she pulled down the Monster Book of monsters and Fantastic Beasts, as well as the Angry book of Arachnids and the Compendium of Pesky Pests. Boriss Blowers Beautiful BIG and the Magical Creatures Directory. The Monster Book of Monsters tried to bite her but she stroked it and it quietened. The last book she pulled out was called just called Banned and Dangerous and was definitely her most used book. She spent a good while searching through these until she had a good idea what was possible.

She had a plan by lunchtime, loosely based on the scheme of work provided, but with a number of more dangerous and interesting animals as well which would be introduced every few weeks in one-off lessons. She crawled out of her trunk, closed it up with a wave of her hand and then left to find Hagrid.

The half-giant wasn't in the great hall, and she grew quickly annoyed by the number of students who turned to study her with a mix of confusion and wonder. The whispers of 'that's the new professor' grew old very quickly. Leaving the castle she saw Hagrid's hut had smoke coming from the top, so she made her way down to him. Three knocks, a deep bark of a dog to alert its master and Rubeus Hagrid opened the door with a frown.

"I know you," he pointed a huge finger at her. "Ere, Fang, get away." The huge dog bounded through the door and knocked Arundel off her feet, she sat on the floor giggling as Fang licked her face. "E's not meant to do that, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry, I love dogs."

"You're the new professor? I've heard your name before, a guy down the pub used to talk about you."

"I'd like to know _his_ name so I can shut him up," Arudel grumbled. "Hagrid I need your help."

"My help?" he echoed. "How's that?"

"Can you get these before tomorrow?" she pulled a list from her pocket. Hagrid read through and his eyes widened. "Tomorrow?"

"Yeah."

"That's not going to be easy, mind."

"How much?"

"Eh?"

"How much do you want?"

Hagrid scratched his beard, "It's not about money, you know there's a Ministry approved curriculum don't you?"

Arundel rolled her eyes.

"If you want my advice, start em on Crups and Clabberts."

"So boring."

Hagrid started to laugh, "There's a mooncalf and two unicorns you can track in the forbidden forest with the seventh years. I've got a Porlock you can start the fifth years on, but I'll try and get the flesh-eating slugs for you for the third years by tomorrow at least."

"Thanks, Hagrid."

"If I find anything else interesting i'll let you know."

The whole time Arundel had been sat on the floor scratching behind Fangs ears as he dribbled onto her lap. Now she stood up her robes were soaked. Hagrid winced but she started to laugh again.

"Do you think they would enjoy feeding my Sleeping Eyegougers?"

Hagrid chuckled. "I think they would love that, if they survive it."

"How do I get myself a set of goggles and cotton gloves?"

"Most teachers leave an order in the staffroom and their resources get delivered to the classroom ready for the next day."

Arundel thanked Hagrid profusely, said bye to Fang one more time and then started back to the castle, her plans would need to be modified but she had slightly expected it however that meant her next stop was the one she least looked forward to.


	7. Chapter 7

The potion.

When Arundel entered the dungeons a door slammed and somebody screamed. She immediately thought about the Grants Artefacts until a student ran past her with her hair on fire. "PUT IT OUT," the girl screamed. Arundel flicked her hand down through the sky and water followed, it drenched the screaming girl who stood with her mouth open blinking and making a strange eww noise.

"What happened?"

"Snape happened." the girl pouted, her face going red. "He made me test my own potion and he knew I'd done it wrong."

"Hay," Arundel shrugged, "you created a potion to make somebody's hair set on fire. Congratulations. Never be so rude about a professor again, five points from Ravenclaw." She'd always wanted to do that.

"Wait...what?"

Arundel smiled.

"You're a professor?"

"Oh yes, Care of Magical Creatures."

"Why are you down here?"

"Why are you so interested?"

"I'm-" the girl paused and at that moment caught Arundel's eye. Arundel saw her snooping, saw her friend being pinned to the ceiling by ghostly hands and having to use a curse to cut him down. She saw them fighting with a Slytherin who they thought was involved. All in the blink of an eye.

"I'm…?" Arundel pressed.

"My name is Freya Griffin, I'm a sixth year."

"Freya, it's not sensible to be out of class alone in the dungeons. Anybody would think you set your hair on fire on purpose to get out of class."

Freya took a step back, but with the practised ease of a school child, she shook her head, eyes wide. "Honestly professor, I just needed to get to the bathroom."

"And now you don't. I'll walk you back."

Never trust a child who says 'Honestly.' with satisfaction she saw Freya sag as she turned and was lead back to potions room.

Snape looked up as the door opened, his eyes studied Freya, then fixed on Arundel. The same old mix of anger and resentment that masked his many insecurities so well. Arundel smiled at him, he did make her laugh. "I've brought you a student, Professor."

"Miss Griffin thinks it's acceptable to run away from her mistakes, I think five points will be sufficient for it."

"But!"

"Be silent Griffin," Snape snapped. "Take your seat and fix your useless potion."

Arundel crossed the classroom and whispered in Snape's ear, "May I borrow a caldron and some supplies?"

"Are you going to pay for what you use?" Snape said it loud enough for his students to hear, showing them that nobody was above his reproach and dispelling any notion that Arundel and he were in any way friendly, it was a warning to her more than anything else. A slap on the wrist for disturbing his lesson.

Arundel fished around in her pocket and gave him a handful of knutts. Snape looked down at the coins, looked back up at her with a very long face, pocketed the coins before the class could see and continued teaching. He wouldn't speak to her again, and she would set herself up in a corner of the room and ignore the rest of the class.

She set the cauldron on a fire ring and measured water to simmer before she hunted the shelves for the right ingredients. She tied her hair back cracked her neck and began. It wouldn't take long to make the draft she needed to render her students able to fly tomorrow.

She started with dried moonflower, added sloths brain and mudweed, phoenix feather and garlic and then just kept going, the potion turned red, green, caught fire and then started to turn a very light silver. She was completely absorbed with what she was doing, so much so that she didn't realise Snape had bid the class to watch her after they had cleaned up.

"Unlike your pathetic attempts, here we see a true master of her art, completely understanding the delicate balances and interactions of the ingredients. Who can tell me what she is creating?"

Griffin put her hand up, unobserved by Arundel. "Some kind of levitation potion?"

"A week one," Arundel muttered. "Can't make it too strong, need to defuse it so i'll add more mudwart to ground the base tone." She didn't even really notice who she was talking to.

"Why would mudwort act in this way?" Snape asked. "Hannam?"

"It's properties are to make items heavier or to increase their mass."

"Too much and i'll have a bunch of fat students bouncing around," Arundel muttered as she sprinkled a slither of lacewing flies in. "This will counteract it."

"Why?" one of the students asked her directly, and this broke her out of her trance and she looked up at the students. "What do you mean why? It's obvious. Are you not doing your NEWTS? Tell me why I'm doing it."

"Lacewing is used in shrinking potions." Griffin snapped at the Hufflepuff who had been made to feel very small.

"I'm going to give you five points back for that observance," Snape told her.

The potion was slowly turning blue, the steam shimmered and Arundel gave it one last stir and took it off the simmering heat. Snape turned and got her a number of small vials, and she got the class to fill them with a parapet. Half the mix was left once the sixty or so vials were full. As she worked with the sixth years Snape went to his desk and started to mark their potions, he didn't look up once.

"If we drank this how long would it take to wear off?"

"About an hour."

"How does it work?"

"You control your height by breathing. Breathing in will increase your height and breathing out will lower it. You maintain a steady height by shallow and slow breaths. Perhaps your potions master would like to let us know who's attempts today were worth winning a vial."

Snape looked up from the desk, where small tubes of potion were being tested with his wand. "I am loth to give Griffin the vile as she sabotaged her own work to get out of my classroom, but hers is the only one that would work correctly, the rest are substandard at best."

Arundel chucked a vile at Griffin, who flinched, blinked and plucked it out of the air where it spun in front of her.

"Now get out of my classroom," Snape commanded. When the sixth years were gone Snape looked her up and down, "They stayed for an hour past the end of the lesson to watch you work, perhaps there is hope for them." Arundel poured the rest of the potion into a large jar and Snape labelled it for her. "Are you going to make the antidote?" he asked.

"I'll get started on it in a moment," she told him. "Thank you for letting me stay."

He nodded and started to clean his classroom with a flick of his wand. Arundel began to work again, this time using ingredients that would neutralize the levitation potion."

"You're making this up as you go along," Snape muttered as he stood next to her looking into her cauldron. "I've never seen it done like that."

Arundel noticed how close he was standing, and how long it must have been since he washed his robes, they smelled of feet. She turned so she was facing him and ran a hand down his collar, "When was the last time you washed this?" she asked. Snape didn't pull away from her, he didn't look up at her either. She could practically see him fighting with himself. She ran his collar through her thumb and forefinger, "Do you remember the potions we used to brew? We came up with some-"

Severus smiled, his eyes flicked up to her and then his smile fell and a hollow longing filled it. "Arun," he muttered. "Don't turn me into a passing amusement because I am here and you are bored."

Arundel dropped her hand and turned back to the potion. "You were never the passing amusement, Sev, I was."

The potions master took a few steps back from her but to his credit, he didn't turn away. "I never stopped wanting you."

"I'm flattered."

"You left."

"You made it easy."

"Lilly…"

"Lilly, Lilly, Lilly Sev! Merlin's Beard, I understand how dear she was to you. I do. You don't need to explain it again."

"But you don't understand," Snape through his hands up in frustration. "You never understood."

"You are obsessed!"

"It's not an obsession," Snape shouted, like a madman possessed.

Arun threw her hands up in frustration and stormed from the potions room. Behind her, she heard Severus kick something hard and swear as he hurt himself.


	8. Chapter 8

The Teacher.

Sleep was hard won; she hadn't found her bedchambers yet, so she slept on the sofa in her travel chest. Conversations with Snape and the fear of meeting her new students and attempting to teach them tomorrow kept her in a never-ending state of overbearing panic. She considered a sleeping draft, but by the time she decided to use one, it was pointlessly late. When she did finally find comfort in the arms of oblivion her teeth snapped out of her mouth, exposing bloody stumps that stabbed her with pain, and she drove metal spikes through her eyes. She woke up with a stiff neck, feeling worse than she had the night before.

Six thirty was once time to go to bed, now it was a time to get up, she pulled faces in the mirror, looked over her notes for her classes, practised how she would greet the class, reviewed the names of the students. Studied her teeth. Tied her hair up, then pulled it out to have it lose. She changed her outfit three times. Put makeup on, then took it off, then put it on again. She cursed Snape for making her feel so awful, and then herself for being so churlish. She checked a picture frame to the left of the mirror that showed a painting of the room in which the trunk stood, she could see that nobody was around, so she took the stairs up and climbed out.

The staffroom moved around, and at seven twenty she managed to find it by following Mrs Norris who, like her owner, seemed to have taken a liking to her. When she was at school the staff room was on the seventh floor, now it had moved itself next to the Great Hall on the ground floor. She was one of the last teachers to arrive, and she crowded around a kettle to get her morning cup of tea. McGonagall was speaking to Dumbledore next to the fireplace, Snape was studying a piece of paper on a table with a teacher she recognised as the Arithmancy teacher professor Vector, and another that she assumed was the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. She saw Flitwick and Sprout laughing and watched how Professor Trelawney muttered to herself as she sat looking at the bottom of her cup. Professor Bins slept in his ghostly form opposite and the muggle studies professor Charity Burbage seemed to be having an animated conversation with Professor Babbling and Professor Sinastra.

She sipped her tea and smiled politely at a number of people, but she couldn't help but gather information and felt very alone amongst it all. Dumbledore broke away from McGonagall and cleared his throat. As he did the other teachers settled to give him their attention. As they did Arundel noticed how Snape's neck looked red like he had rope burn and a flash of fear racked her body. What had he done to himself?

"Good morning," Dumbledore called, holding his teacup in both his hands, he took a sip. "Delightful, there is nothing better than a cup of tea to start the day. This morning we are welcoming a new member to our staff team. Some of you will have taught her, some will have other dealings with her and some will have no idea who she is. Today she becomes our new Care of Magical Creatures teacher, so welcome Miss Granville."

The staff gave her a polite but unenthusiastic 'welcome.' Her reputation proceeded her, it seemed.

"Today I need to remind you that the dungeons remain uninhabitable, and further to moving the Slytherins out, Potions and our dear Professor Snape will also move today. This means all Potions classes have been cancelled. Heads of House, make it known that the time should be used wisely."

"Do we know what it is causing the trouble down there Headmaster?" Babbling asked.

"We have a number of theories, It's a grave matter indeed but we shall prevail."

"Is the school in danger of closing?"

"I have spoken at length to the minister and we have decided it is best if the school remains open for the moment, but we must be vigilant about the movements of the students, particularly after dark, and so I have asked Mr Filch to patrol down there. This means that we will need to step up our own patrol of the upper floors." the headmaster nodded good day and the staff started to go back to their own conversations. To Arundel's annoyance, Snape didn't even look at her. As much as she was too proud to admit it, she expected a 'good luck' at least.

She was too nervous to eat breakfast, instead, she checked and rechecked her classroom, ran to Hagrid's and checked the various creatures she wanted to show her student and the time went in leaps and jumps. Half an hour felt like five minutes that morning and before she had a chance to process what was about to happen the babble of children could be heard outside of her door.

She stood on the other side of the door with her eyes closed, steadying her breath, and realised that she felt more exposed now than she ever had facing the Darklord. These soft pathetic children who would not kill her as soon as look at her, and she was more worried about them? What did that say about her? What did that say about them? She pulled the door quickly and saw a mix of third year Slytherin and Gryffindor students who paid her very little attention.

"Good morning," she told them, but her voice was just another voice in a sea. A few of them turned and gave her a brief smile, but when nothing more happened they just kept talking. Arundel scratched the back of her head, this wouldn't do. She held up her hand, took a deep breath and with a flick of her fingers the mouths of the students disappeared. Their eyes widened, they poked at their faces and then when Arundel cleared her throat they finally turned to face her. "Do not make me wait like that ever again; I may not be inclined to give you the gift of your mouths back. You will sit Slytherin, Gryffindor in that order and you will make sure you have a quill pen and ink ready to use. Your seat is the one you will stay in for the rest of the year, and the only person who will move you is me. We will be working in dangerous and often deadly conditions, this means your listening skills and ability to follow direction must be well developed. Should you give me cause to doubt, I will not allow you to participate. Do you understand."

The mouthless students nodded.

"Let's see who's followed so far." She stepped back from the door and watched them file in silently. Everybody did as they were asked, and her time with the Dark Lord had taught her something at least.

Halfway through the lesson she gave them back their mouths and introduced them to their first creature; A flesh-eating slug. The class listened to her safety briefing regarding the juices of the slug and its properties for melting flesh, they made notes on how the slime could be used and what potions it was crucial for. Ten minutes in she had to levitate all the slugs into the air because one of the Slytherins thought it would be funny to throw his at a Gryffindor he didn't like. The Slytherin was given detention, she took fifteen points away from his house, and took his mouth off him again. He sulked for the rest of the lesson but he did as he was told. One of the Gryffindors seemed incapable of following instructions and got the slime on his wrist, she had to use her personal antidote to stop the slime slowly melting through his skin and made a mental note to brew up some more. Next week, she told them, they would feed their slug, study its habitat and start to collect its slime. Completing the write up of the lesson would be done as homework and a thinly veiled threat of detentions followed. When they left she was exhausted and unsure if she had done anything right but to her dismay, the next class was arriving and she'd had no time to prepare for them. She felt sick and expected to have the same struggles with the next group, but the Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff group were so quiet it was depressing. Teaching them was like pulling teeth. They didn't ask questions or show any kind of flair or excitement, they got nothing wrong either, and they all completed their write up in the lesson which meant she now had marking.

The evening lessons were more fun, especially the seventh years in the forest. The levitation potions worked well and they were able to silently float through the trees to try and track the unicorn and mooncalf. They found the calf, but of the unicorn, they only found a few hairs. These lessons were longer and the students were older and more interested. They asked relevant questions and were happy to speak to her about their past teachers, assessments and curriculums. She liked the seventh years, but that put pressure on too because now she felt she owed it to them not to mess up. The fifth years were a similar story, obsessed with the OWL curriculum and what would come up, demanding to know what creatures they would work with and if there would be any trips away from the school.

By teatime she realised she had worked through the day without a break, lunch had been taken up with the afternoon set up, and the break had been taken up with the flesh-eating slug clean away. She was light-headed, dehydrated, exhausted, and the idea of going in search for the Grants Artifacts was the last thing she wanted to do. Eight pints of water and a night of long sleep was first on her agenda, but tomorrow she had classes all day too. The Levitation potion was still wearing off, not that she needed it because she could fly unassisted, and her feet dragged across the ground as she made her way back to the castle. Once in the great hall she sunk into a chair and pulled the water jug across to herself. Ate a lonely meal in a standoffish fashion, ignoring the well-meaning smiles of the other teachers and went back to her room.

Her trunk was open. She paused by her classroom door and studied it, knowing that she had locked it earlier in the day. It was pretty obvious who had come to call and for a moment she thought about turning around and going elsewhere. She was too tired to fight but too exhausted to be diplomatic. She descended down the stairs and smelled cooking. Snape turned from the kitchen and seemed pretty smug, "That's the easy bit over you know," he told her, perhaps he wanted to carry on as nothing had happened. It would be nice to just speak to her friend without all the history getting in the way.

She lay down on her sofa and closed her eyes, letting out a groan as she did.

"Can you refrain from taking fifteen points away from my house at a time?"

"The little shit chucked a flesh-eating slug at some other annoying child. What are you doing in my kitchen?"

"I'm making you a cup of tea. I know how much you love your tea. Oh, and lunch for tomorrow."

Arundel grumbled and he came around the sofa with two mugs. She pulled herself from horizontal and took the cup from him. "Thanks." She watched as Snape sipped his and studied the inside of her travel box, his eyes settled on a picture that showed the classroom outside, and then to a large floor to ceiling mirror next to it. She remembered he didn't really like looking at his reflection, the mirror must have been a challenge. "How did you find teaching?"

"It's…" Arun sipped the brown liquid as she thought how to describe it, "It's like being a performer on a stage where the audience hates you. I didn't get break, or lunch, and I had to hex the first group to get them quiet."

"I wouldn't make a habit of that, angry owl's from parents are frustrating to say the least." Severus fell quiet for a moment, then he looked at her very seriously. "Arun," he said. "I need to talk to you, and I need you to listen without interrupting, however much you want to."

Arun raised an eyebrow, here we go, she thought. "Fine."

"Lily-"

"Oh god,"

"I said don't interrupt."

Arun frowned, and ran her bottom lip through her teeth, despite the warmth of the tea, she felt cold.

"I loved her. I still do and I always will. She was my best friend when I was a child. She was kind to me throughout my life even though I never deserved it. I thought if I was as popular as the Potter boy was she would feel the same for me as I did for her, but it drove us further apart, and then the Death Eaters became such a big part of my life, such an encouraging influence, that I was too far gone for her and morally repugnant. We continued to be friends, but that friendship was strained. I didn't go to her wedding thought I was invited, I didn't respond when she wrote. I tried to move on. I met you. I was happy and I felt very much the same about you as I did for her, better even in some respects because you seemed happy with me too. I finally put some distance between myself and what was really an unhealthy relationship. And then I heard the prophecy and I told it to the Dark Lord. Only later did I realise that it was about her, and I was the reason she would die. I begged him to spare her, but I knew him so well by this point that I was certain he would not. It's not an obsession Arun, but her death is my biggest regret. She died and I am the reason for it. I killed her; I loved her deeply and I did the worst thing imaginable. I did that, and for what? The approval of a tyrant?"

Arundel stroked the rim of her cup with her thumb. She felt tears sting at the corner of her eyes and she hung her head. She wanted to shout at him, she wanted to shout at herself.

"It was never a matter of Lily or you, I'd made my choice already. But as soon as you found out about her you left. As if you could not wait to be rid of me." He sat forward, "And I find out from the newspapers that you are in Egypt curse breaking for Gringotts with another man. So tell me, why did I mean so little to you?" That last sentence was said with a dangerous wobble in his tone.

Arundel's lips grew thin as her jaw tensed.

"You simply assumed," he sipped his tea and leant forward, "And you left me when I needed you most." Arun felt a warm tear break away from her eye and roll down her cheek. She would not say sorry. He saw she was crying and he sneered, "I expected better."

Arun sniffed, she downed the cup of tea and she walked away from him. "I was angry, I felt like I was a convenience and I do not like being second best. Yes, I went to Egypt, to get away from you and everything else going on here. I was exhausted and Faro was..." she threw her hands into the air. "He was easy. Easy to work with, easy to be with, easy. He died when we cracked a vault open, and you know what? Mourning him was easy too." She pinched the bridge of her nose and leant back against the cabinets. "I hated you for that. I wanted to feel as awful over his loss as I did for leaving you and I couldn't."

Severus sat with his head bowed, his hands linked together, "Why did you come to Hogwarts?" he asked.

"Why do you think?"

He looked up, his black eyes boring into her, and she noticed again the rope mark around his neck. "Did you have any intention of seeking me out when you came back to England?" He asked.

"I didn't dare to hope for a warm reception, I was quite angry with the Malfoys for trying to set us up but I'm glad they did. You're the reason I'm at Hogwarts Sev."

Snape hung his head again, he took a deep breath and he stood up. Slowly he walked over to her and he took her hands. He opened his mouth to speak but couldn't seem to find the words. Arun closed her eyes her heart was racing in her chest, she wished it would stop. She felt her cheeks flush and cursed how her body was reacting to his touch. He pulled her into his arms, she rested her cheek on his shoulder. He smelled so familiar, his skin gave a comforting heat.

"Can we try again?" he asked.

"We can try," she whispered and enjoyed the sensation of his hand running across her hair and over her back. Severus kissed her, it was a long desperate kiss but so gentle she wondered when he pulled away if it had ever happened.

"What are they doing in your classroom?"

Arundel staggered back, "hum?" she asked.

Snape nodded to the painting on the wall, she could see a familiar looking girl and boy standing in her classroom looking in her cupboards.

"That's Griffin, and the boy who threw the flesh-eating slug, he's called Jacob."

"I know," Snape muttered, his eyes narrowing. "Did you leave the lid of the travel trunk open?"

"No, they won't find us down here."

"They've been snooping around for weeks, searching the dungeons for whatever is creating the hauntings. Jacob is the child who got hurt, Griffin is his friend. She's got the brains and he has a nose for trouble." Arun lent into Snape but he was engrossed in watching the children snooping, "I wouldn't be surprised if they are the reason behind the hauntings." She pulled him back to the sofa, "They can search up there all they want, they won't find anything. We have better things to do than worry about them."


	9. Chapter 9

The terror in the night.

Arundel's sofa was not a comfortable bed for one person, but with two it was impossible. Severus was sleeping, his chest rose and fell in a satisfying rhythm but she lay with her head on his shoulder thinking about the lessons, the artefacts and the fact that her arm was numb. She pushed herself up, Snape didn't wake, she'd always found it remarkable that he slept so soundly when they had sex and so poorly the rest of the time, Petite Mort was more the word to describe his sleeping pattern than the way the French used it. The fact that this still held true, years after she had last seen him, was strangely comforting.

She pulled tobacco out from a draw and rolled herself a cigarette, poured a glass of water and sat watching the back of the sofa. She was not too sure what she was doing. She'd spent years silently cursing him, feeling like he had used her to pass time because he couldn't get the woman he really wanted. Had that changed? She wasn't so sure, and yet she had been the one making excuses for herself and pining after him like a lost puppy, so eager to have him back. Did that make her selfish? She lit her cigarette, forced herself to think about the reason she was here. Clearly, the hauntings were getting worse, and her sword was in Gringotts, so if one Grants Artefact was here already, another was added to it this year, meaning a teacher or a student brought it with them, or Dumbledore brought one into the school not knowing another was already here. The third explanation, which was less pleasurable to consider, was that the american society had come to England with the other four and were close by, but this seemed less likely as nobody was dead or panicking yet.

Snapes hand ran across the top of the sofa cushions and he sat up bleary eyed. He studied her for a moment with heavy lidded eyes and then he lay back down again. She heard him turn sideways, "Come back to bed," he commanded. "You need to teach today."

Arundel took another puff on her cigarette then she stubbed it out, downed the water and came back to him. Now he'd moved it was more comfortable, and he ran his hand across her to hold her close to him and pulled blankets tight to keep them warm. In no time she fell into a deep and comfortable sleep.

From seven thirty the next morning to seven thirty in the evening Arundel didn't stop. By the end of it she was sick, shaken and fueled by adrenaline alone. If Snape hadn't made her food she would not have eaten again. She didn't understand why anybody would want to teach, the children acted like they had a mental illness for the sheer delight of seeing their friends disgusted. They were so dimwitted, so slow to understand that it was painful to watch them. She could't ever remember a time when she was so uninterested in the world. Her effort far outweighed their gains, which felt like pointless expenditure. And yet if she didn't spent the time planning, and preparing and setting up and packing away, resourcing, speaking to other teachers and calling in as many favours as she could, they would be left with nothing to do, and that was a far far worse prospect. The one break she did hope to take had been taken up with the 'keen' ones who wanted jobs like magizoology (where there were five jobs going every year, if you were lucky) who quizzed her and wanted to play with the flesh eating slugs. There were also a cohort of seventh year potions students hoping for some kind of extra credit, or just some advice on how to make Snape think more of them.

At seven thirty she had missed dinner in the Great Hall and she sank into one of the chairs on the teacher table and put her head into her hands. A smattering of students sat in the hall on the empty long tables reading and playing games. There was a pop and a plate of sandwiches appeared by her arm, "Thanks," she muttered to nobody and took one.

"I hear you are a great success, Miss Granville." McGonagall's voice made Arundel wince. "I trust you are finding it as easy as you thought you would?"

"Oh yes," Arundel looked up from her sandwich. "It's great." Occlumency was second nature to Arundel after so long flitting between the dark lord and the Ministry, but she was glad to be able to use it now. She didn't know for sure that McGonagall had skills in legitimacy but she suspected.

"I was hoping I could persuade you to take up a night duty? I am sure you have noticed that we are currently experiencing some disruptions in the Dungeons?" She took a seat next to Arundel and cast her a sidelong glance. "Filch had an awful night. Especially when he tried to raise Professor Snape and found him absent from his chambers."

"Oh?" Arundel chewed slowly, "What happened to Filch?"

"A terrible apparition, the ghost of his sister apparently. She tried to lead him deeper into the dungeons. He said that it turned deathly cold, the ceiling started dripping blood and then somebody attacked him with a knife. He's blaming students... but after the other attacks I'm not so sure," McGonagall shuddered.

"I'm happy to guard it if you want?"

"No, leave that to Dumbledore and the other senior staff to sort out, you must focus on your teaching."

"So where do you want me to patrol then?"

"Your floor would be ideal."

Arundel bit into her sandwich again, "On the days I don't teach do I need to stay at the school?" Arundel asked her.

"You've only been here two days and you can't wait to leave us?"

Arun smiled, "I only teach three days a week," she said.

"It is good practice to be here as much as you can be. We are always in need of helping hands."

McGonagall stood up and looked down her bespectacled nose at Arundel, "My students tell me that your lessons are some of the best they have known. That's high praise indeed for somebody so new. Strangely they talk more about your skill brewing potions than your animal husbandry."

"Wh…" Arun forgot to chew, but McGonagall swept from the room without elaborating.

A little while later an owl landed on the table and left her with a message that read " _Rising sun. eight layers high. two sphinx, Four up and six to the left. Are you too exhausted to figure this one out? If so, I'll help pack up your trunk."_

Arun yawned and rubbed her eyes, Snape's handwriting was like a spider's web, usually he put more effort into his riddles and puzzles. First, rising sun would denote either a direction or a time. Considering that the next instruction was 'eight layers high' she expected he meant the eighth floor of the east tower. Two sphinx must be some kind of art, either sculptural or decorative, and four up and six to the left could mean door number. She left the hall and went in search of the east tower, sure enough, eight floors up she found statues of two sphinx either side of a blank wall. But there wasn't a corridor or a selection of rooms. There were, however, crumbled bricks showing through cracked plaster. She started on the right and counted four up and six to the left. When she touched the stone it shivered and with an eager wiggle it moved out the way, the others followed it until a doorway existed where the wall had been a moment before. Smiling at her own intelligence she stepped through.

Snape looked up from a caldron, a notebook in his hand, he didn't seem that impressed or happy that she was here. And her own pride was smothered by her usual suspicion and barely suppressed anger.

"I didn't know if you would come, I thought you might want to sleep." He'd taken off his robes and was standing in trousers with a black shirt. She noticed a glass of wine on the table half drunk. He tipped a measure of some fine red powder into his caldron and stirred with a flick of his wand then leaned in to observe how it was changing the mix. His robes were chucked over the back of a nearby chair, and his shoes were scattered into the corner. It was a scene of domestic chaos she wasn't ready for.

"Your puzzle was a little underwhelming, was 'pack up your trunk' supposed to be a euphemism?" she turned and watched as the doorway sealed itself up then joined him by the Caldron, "What's this?"

"It's for Filch." Snape told her without looking up from what he was doing. "That business in the dungeons has troubled him deeply. When he couldn't find me he went to the hospital wing but Madam Pomfrey's potions for calming have been ineffective."

"What's he doing?"

"Gibbering," Snape looked at her as if daring her to laugh. She couldn't read anything behind his eyes.

"His sister?" She said anyway, figuring the accurate guess might make him feel less sure in his occlumency skills.

"You know?"

"Only what Professor McGonagall told me; that he saw his dead sister and was attacked." She could have kept the ruse up, but she felt bad making him doubt himself.

Snape nodded and went back to the potion but he was frowning and she realised there was something else bothering him beyond Filch or his desire to sleep with her.

"What happened to _you_ down there?"

Severus continued to work on his ingredients and he didn't answer her, he didn't even look at her to show her he had heard her, but his sallow face went more pale than before and his eyebrows creased together as he continued to work on the potion. She didn't need him to tell her, she could see it plain as day in the way he withdrew from her, Filch saw his sister, Snape saw Lily. Arundel hung her head and moved further into the room, it was a circular one, with a table, small kitchenette and a bed. There was a door leading off which she assumed went to a bathroom and she pointed to it, "I don't suppose I can have a bath?" she asked, knowing that if she pushed Snape now he'd bite her head off. "It's been three days."

"Feel free," he told her, "There's a clean towel in the cupboard."

She left him to get on with his potion, feeling more than slightly put out at his coldness but determined not to let it affect her. It was her choice to be with him again, and she knew about his past, so why should she be angry when he was clearly suffering?

These were the thoughts circuiting in her head when she pushed open the bathroom door and found the most depressing bathroom she had ever seen. The bath was white porcelain but painted black on the outside, and the paint was peeling. There was a shower over with an oval shower curtain which was orange-black at the bottom fading to yellow-white at the top. A sad sink had one tap missing, the cabinet over was cracked and the door had started to fall off. When she pulled open the door she saw Severus had placed his toothbrush and toothpaste on the middle shelf, shaving items above and on the bottom four home brewed bottles, one hair oil, one shampoo, one body wash and one labeled 'Experimental Bubblebath Number 2' She stood for a while looking at this bottle, trying to picture Snape having a bubble bath was akin to making a boggart ridiculous.

She filled the bath and used the experimental bubbles which turned the water oil slick coloured, the bubbles that formed were the same thick rainbow pattern and they floated laisily, occasionally breaking free from the bath to drift around the room. Each time they popped a new scent was released. She slid down into the bath with relief, and days of stress floated away on a warm amber scented relaxation. Arundel had forgotten how delicate some of Snape's potions could be, it amazed her that such a severe man could spend his free time experimenting with the perfect bubble bath, but that was Snape all over, hard on the outside but full of mush.

He knocked on the door. "Arun?" he called. "Can I…" he left the question hang silently in the void.

"Come in," she told him.

His hands curled around the door and his head followed, if he was happy she was using his bubble bath he didn't show it, but he did come into the room and he sat with his back against the tub. She looked over the side at him, and saw he was picking at the dirt under his nale. Something told her that he used to do this when he was a child, maybe it was the only time he got to speak to his mum without his father screaming at them.

"You wanted to know what I saw," he told her, and despite the warmth of the water she shivered, and wondered if she would now have to listen to a tortured lamentation about how his redhead obsession had looked so real, and smelled so real and had touched him like-

"I was hung up by my neck by James Potter and his…" he paused, lost for a word venomous enough to describe the bullies who had tormented him throughout his school life. She hardly remembered them or Snape at school, but the nickname Snivellus still stuck in her brain. "They mocked me, beat me and…" he shook his hands in frustration and pushed a lank piece of hair from his face.

"There is nothing more dangerous than a humiliated man," Arundel quoted, honestly relieved that she didn't have to hear Lily's name.

"I knew it was a ghostly abomination but it was solid, and so realistic that, for a moment, I thought they were there. The rope was real enough."

Arun pushed Snapes hair away from his neck, there were still marks from where it bit in to his skin. "How did you escape it?"

"I was able to get my wand, I repelled them and ran." He paused. "I'm not a coward Arun."

"And when you repelled them did they act like physical forms too? Did they fall over or bleed?" She ignored his statement about cowardice. He abhorred the idea that others thought he was frightened. She knew it was the motivating factor in almost everything he had done. Because he was frightened, and he was proud, and he'd been taunted for too long. If he hadn't been so hung up on getting Lily's approval at school he would have stopped Potter and his gang from hurting him a lot quicker.

Snape looked up at her, his black eyes were hard, but haunted too. "I ignored it before, but you said you came here because of me, I don't think that's completely true. You're here because of the hauntings?"

"Yes," finally he had replayed their conversations objectively. She was more than a little disappointed it had taken him so long.

"Tell me about them," Snape urged.

Arundel turned in the bathwater and sent a flurry of bubbles up into the air. As they popped she smelled fresh sheets, cut grass and coffee. "Wisdon Grant was a wizard during the American Civil War. He saw the Muggle unrest as an opportunity to become a supreme ruler of the magical council in America, and so he created a number of artefacts which would give him the power to subjugate. When all the artefacts are united they can be used to reanimate the dead and cause mass hysteria. I was contracted to find all seven, at first I didn't know the power the artefacts had when reunited and I never saw any of the artefacts reunited. By the second artefact, I had done more research, not that there is much to go on, but I started to fear them. Later, I uncovered a plot to use them to resurrect the Dark lord, and I knew I couldn't let it go on much longer."

"So?" Snape pressed, his eyes glinting when she mentioned the Dark Lord.

"So, when I found the fifth artefact I ran away with it. I tried to sell it to the Aura's, I hoped that they would take over the cause but either politics or pettiness got in the way of them acting on my information. I considered hiding it at Borgen and Burke's but they are desperate for money and would sell it in a heartbeat, and then I met you at Narcissa's and you tell me about the hauntings here and I wonder if, perhaps, It was the sixth artefact."

Snape ran his hand through his hair and in a sarcastic tone he said, "How very wise of you to bring one of those artifact-"

"I didn't bring the one in my posession, Sev," Arundel cut across. "It's in the safest place I know and far away from Hogwarts."

"So what's causing the-"

"One artifact on it's own could never cause so much damage without being left for a long time in one place. " Arundel got out of the bath and wrapped the towel around her. Severus tracked her with his eyes but his thoughts were far away. "We have either been infiltrated by members of the American Society of Dark Wizards or somebody else has brought a second artifact into the school. Personally, I think the latter is more likely than the former."

Snape pulled the plug out of the bath for her, and he leant on the side of the tub and stared at his feet. "What do these artifacts look like?"

"The first one I found was a kettle, the second a white sheet, the third a muggle bible and the fourth was a necklace. The fifth was a sword. I don't know anything about the sixth or seventh. I look for hauntings with a malicious or horrific intent. If the Americans are also looking it's crucial that the word doesn't get out about Hogwarts."

"I doubt we can stop that," Snape cautioned, "This school is a sieve."

"Then perhaps the Americans are already here."

"These items, do they work on their own or do they need to be directed?"

Arun sat on the closed toilet lid as her skin dried from the bath. "Do you have anything clean I can wear… you don't, do you?"

Snape raised an eyebrow and pointed his wand towards the door, which banged open and a dressing gown and slippers floated through. "I don't know why everybody assumes I'm unclean."

"Hair oil," she told him and watched as he self consciously smoothed his hair.

"It goes static if I don't use it-" he paused, "Grants Artefacts, do try to stay on topic."

"They are active on their own, but directed they are powerful," Arun told him as she took his clothing offerings and wrapped herself in them. "I need to get all of them in one place to destroy them."

Snape reacted like he had been stung, "Destroy?" he questioned. "Arun- I- did you intend to do this alone?"

"I can't very well ask the Malfoy's to help, can I?" she leaned forward, "All my friends are death eaters or supporters of he-who-must-not-be-named. I intended for the Ministry to deal with it, but they refused, and so I am left with no option. I have no idea how they intend to use the artifacts to bring Him back, but they have a way, they have a plan. As much as I profited from my cousin, I hated what he created." she paused, she'd said too much without knowing for sure that Snape wanted the same as her.

Severus moved across to her and knelt down in front of her, "Don't be foolish," he told her, his voice full of cold concern. "There has to be another way to get rid of them. Why are you always so keen to put yourself in danger, let me help you?"

Arun reached her hand to his face and stroked along his chin, for a moment she lost herself in his dark eyes and how dearly she wanted to say 'yes dear, it's too dangerous, will you help me please?' but as soon as that thought crossed her mind anger followed and it spilled out of her mouth. "Sev," she muttered, "Don't pretend your concern for me extends farther than your balls." she dropped her hand, instantly regretting her choice of words. She had her own hangups too it seemed.

Snape blinked, he couldn't hide the shock, and reacted as if he had been slapped. "You think so little of me?"

Arun didn't answer, she watched him for his reaction, wondering if there could ever be more to them than friendship and an occasional need fulfilled. If he could ever see her as important as his precious Lily. She didn't even bother hiding her thoughts from him, he read her like an open book and he recoiled from her.

"How many different ways must I prove to you that I care?" he snapped, "Why can't you accept that my love for her will be always, but that does not mean I have no capacity left to care. She is dead, I saw to that, I can't obliterate her from my mind or change what has happened."

He stood up like a bat taking flight and made his way across the bathroom to the door where he stopped with his hand on the handle and took a deep steadying breath. She expected him to wrench the door open and stride out, that's what she would have done. Her face burned with shame. There was a line with Snape, and she had come close to crossing it, if he walked out she knew it would be for good this time. But he turned away from the door, and when he looked back at her his face was determined.

"You know, Arun, no," he spoke in a low controlled tone, "I hate you so much when you push me away." He crossed the room pulled her up and ran his hands up her arms and across her shoulders. "You want me to say it? Fine. I want you, I care about you." he kissed her forehead and he was about to break away from her when she stopped him and drew him into a kiss. Surprised at first, he kissed her slowly, lightly, and then she felt the rough skin of his thumb as he brushed under her ear and she pushed herself closer to him. She could feel him wanting her, but it was all happening too quick and she slowed him down, "I wish I could stop you from hating yourself," he told her between kisses.

She stiffened and broke away from him.

Severus watched her like she was some wounded animal. She felt anger rise, but it wasn't quite anger, fear but not quite fear, he held out a hand and gently took her wrist and he pulled it to his mouth and kissed her softly without losing eye contact. When she didn't protest he guided her out of the bathroom, and with a wave of his wand the shutters on the windows closed.

"Can I?" he asked.

Arun nodded, her tongue felt too big in her mouth, she felt so awkward as he ran his fingers down the folds of material that shrouded her, as he undid the fabric belt and the gown fell open he reached down and took one of her breasts in his mouth. She sighed, ran her hand through his hair and encouraged he continued working his way down her body. "Sev-" she sighed, but her own bodies weakness overwhelmed her and pleasure was replaced with a sickening feeling akin to humiliation. "Stop," she whispered, "come on," and she motioned to the bed. Snape seemed confused, confused why she would want him to stop when she was so wrapped in bliss a moment before, confused why she needed now to take control, but he did as she asked. He bedded her, entered her like he usually did with him on top and her leg over his shoulder and she enjoyed the fury of his passion but felt none of the ecstasy of his touch and when he finished, he did it alone, and she felt selfish for it.

"Do you have any tobacco?"

Severus watched her as she cast around for her clothes, he reached out for her hand and she let him hold it briefly before she became more concerned with cleaning herself up.

"Arundel?"

She paused, with dressing gown draped across her shoulders, "yes?"

"Arundel," Snape said her name more forcefully. She couldn't make his eye, she felt like she was about to cry and his wish kept circulating round her head until it span. "Sit down." She did as she was asked, and sat heavily on the corner of his bed. Snape sat up, his chest muscles were surprisingly defined for a man who spent so long covering himself up. "It's not my place to pry," he told her. "But you know you are safe with me don't you?"

She realised how wrong he had read the situation, but it melted her heart that he had taken her frigidity so personally. "I-" she paused. Safe?

Snape took her hand in both of his, she studied his fingers but couldn't make his eye. "You're exquisite," he told her, guiding her gently down onto the bed and into his arms. For a long time they just kissed, he explored her with his mouth and his hands so slowly. She felt so alive, like every part he touched was electric, she guided him down, wanting him to try again, but he resisted, knowing how much she wanted him, and left her in agony. "Sev," she muttered, but he was up off the bed and pulling on his clothes. He looked down at her with satisfaction and something else, concern? There was a question there anyway, but he was too skilled to let her read his mind and she wasn't about to let him into hers.

"I have work to do," he told her.

"Filch?" she asked.

"If I don't go to him tonight people will ask questions about me."

"Then I should come too."

"You should sleep."

"Here?" Arundel asked.

"You can go back to your rooms if you want, spend another miserable night on your sofa."

"Ask him what he saw Sev, get him to tell you where he was attacked."

Snape brushed down his cape and nodded, "I'll be back soon," he said as he left.


	10. Chapter 10

The temple of the Snake Eyed King

Once he was gone Arundel did cry, through frustration and anger at herself, and then she had an overwhelming need to be alone. She couldn't spend another night with Severus, as he gently probed her for reasons why she was so cold, and in finding none would find fault in himself. She wished their relationship was a decade old and they were more comforted by a cup of tea and a crossword than each others bodies, she wished it wasn't so hard to constantly have to preempt or second guess what somebody was thinking. That's why she learned to read minds in the first place; because she was too lazy to _guess_. She dried her hair, pulled on her old clothes and decided to leave Snape a message. It was hard to compose, and in her head, the first three attempts were overly long or sounded needy and made her feel more disgusting than she already did. Eventually, she settled for. _I'll be back before Tuesday._ Which was ok, wasn't it? Nothing there to upset, or over think. No apology or explanation too and perhaps Snape needed that, but she didn't want to give it. She couldn't, not yet at least.

In her own room, deep in her travel case she stood in front of the only picture hanging on the wall and tapped the frame. "Amber," she called. "Amber?" The picture, which was a blank background, filled with the face of a younger girl with beautiful green-black eyes and long black hair. She was wearing a dark dress, and she smiled.

"It's late here," the girl said.

"Amber where's here?" Arundel asked, her voice exasperated.

"Thebes."

"Really?" Arun sighed.

"Oh yes," the portrait smiled. "Are you coming to see us?"

"I want to, but only if it's safe to."

"It's never safe."

"Can I come anyway?"

The painting shrugged. "I'll ask," she disappeared. Arun passed back and forth, packing clothes into a bag along with money. She kept checking, kept glancing at the picture, and realised as she paced she chewed her lip. She'd never felt so desperate.

"Ok." Arun looked up, the painting was back. "But be quick about it," and the girl in the picture turned and walked away, a tunnel formed and grew until Arun could follow her. As she walked in this dark corridor she had a sensation like her stomach was falling away from her body but over and over and then a blast of hot air shrunk her skin and she looked around at the inside of a very lavishly decorated bedouin tent, hung with lanterns which cast green and purple light around the room. "Amber?" Arundel called, and from a mass of blankets a black-haired woman, older than her portrait and five years senior to Arundel sat up.

"Hello, sis."

"Thank you for letting me stay," she said and then burst into tears.

"That time of the month is it?" her sister sniggered, which didn't help, but she did get up and pull Arundel into a tight hug. "Hi," she said again and held Arundel at arm's length. "What's up?"

Arundel shrugged, her big sister turned from her and waved her wand to get water heating for a cup of tea. "You've caught me on the move," she said. "I'm actually on the outskirts of Thebes, last night I was attacked at my hotel by James Deacon and his people. Whatever I do to keep one step ahead, they are always there," she rolled her eyes. "They won't find me here. This tent's hidden inside a rock in the middle of the desert. Come on. Sit down." Amber motioned for Arun to take a round puff of a seat, and she poured loose leaf tea for her and sat opposite. "So you're in trouble of your own then?" Amber asked.

"I'm just…. Yeah." Arun puffed out her cheeks, "Why do you always assume if I'm upset it's 'that time of the month'"

"Because," her sister pushed a long lock of hair behind her shoulder, "it usually is. Four weeks out of every five you're a stone-cold killer."

"Well I'm weeks away, and not enjoying this conversation."

" _Well,_ I'm awake and worrying about my sister, who seems to have come to talk, but can't find the words to start." Amber sipped warm tea and studied her over the cup. "Men," she concluded, and Arun realised her sister had got even better at mindreading.

"You… Sis!" she whined.

"Don't worry, I didn't see anything more than a feeling."

"You _Saw_ The feeling of men?" She turned that one round in her mouth, there was no way that it made sense.

Her sisters smile spread.

"It's not…" she trailed off. "I've got myself into a situation."

Her sister leaned forward, her mouth in a humorous pout, "Your last 'situation' got somebody killed. You're not pregnant, are you?"

"What? No! But this might be as bad as..."

"Oh." Amber set the teacup down no longer joking, "Do you want to speak to me or show me?" She tapped the side of her head.

"I'll speak. I think I need to hear myself." Arun told her sister, "Though you can't help me really, I just need to talk to somebody I trust."

Amber's mouth twitched, the way it did when somebody told her something that made her heart skip but on her sideboard, something started to spin, and both girls turned to look. "Your story may have to wait. We're about to be attacked."

Three loud pops smacked the air. Light filled the tent with the crack of a whip and curses were screamed. Arundel reacted with the instincts of a person who had spent her whole adult life fighting. She conjured a protective shield in the air, whilst her sister fired a string of powerful, voiceless magic. The first attacker was disarmed, Arundel finished him off with a horrible curse that broke every bone in his body and then folded him inside out and transfigured him into a doormat. The second fell by her sister's hand, but there were more pops sounding. Arundel grabbed her bag. Her sister tore the painting from the wall and snatched a bag of her own, then grabbed Arundel and apparated them.

They appeared practically noiselessly, into the middle of a hot dark desert. Amber checked her body for damage, "My tent!" she spat, "Those bastards!" her night clothes were ripped and the rest were left behind. "We can't stop here," she told Arun, "We'll go back to Thebes, I know a muggle place they won't look," then without ceremony she grabbed her sister again and they popped into the middle of an empty street in Luxor. "Damn," she muttered. "Thought it would be packed."

"It's past midnight."

Amber slapped her hands against her sides and curled the corner of her mouth, "Come on," she muttered.

By the Nile river was a hotel called the Pharaoh, it had four steps leading up to its double doors with two fake fire torches either side. The doors were painted fake gold and when Amber waved her wand they opened into a dark entrance hall. Inside was dingy, it would have once been lavish but it hadn't been decorated since the twenties and it didn't look like it had been cleaned either. The receptionist looked up, Amber waved her wand in his direction, "Go back to sleep" she commanded and his head fell back down. Another swish of her wand and a key levitated from the backboard into her hand. They took the stairs two at a time and entered a room with green carpeted walls.

Arundel cringed, "Who puts carpet on walls?"

"Muggles who want soundproofing," her sister laughed as she flicked on a light and closed the curtains. "This room has seen a thousand depraved acts I'm sure, help me set wards."

Ten minutes later they sat on the single bed together looking through their packs. Amber had a change of clothes, maps, a book, the painting and some money but she was upset about losing her tent. "Everything I need in my bag," she sighed. "But that tent was great."

"Everything? Really?"

"Really," her sister echoed but the happiness was gone from her voice. "They found me again. Deacon must be tracking me somehow."

"Why's he following you?"

"Because of the map," she motioned to the yellowed paper on the bed between them. "James is a treasure hunter just like you. Strangely, he doesn't like being seduced and having his effects stolen. He's furious with me." Amber's teeth were perfect pearly white when she smiled, "So angry actually that he'll kill to get it back," her smile fell. "It's not personal, he owes people and they will hurt him if he doesn't get to the treasure before me."

"Why are you treasure hunting? You study Old Magic you were never one for Tomb Cracking."

"If I find the Temple of the Snake Eyed King I find the oldest known record of parseltongue being worshipped. I find an unadulterated historical record." she leant forward. "Think about the implications. Those treasures must not go to the hands of private collectors."

This was where Arundel and Amber's relationship drew a line, and though both were adept at walking it and frequently helped each other out the line still existed. "I…" Arundel looked away. "I won't get in your way."

"Good, because James Deacon is exactly the kind of person you would slip off your seat for and I don't want you around to stab me in the back."

"I'm not one for seconds."

Amber grinned and settled against the backboard of the bed. "Why are you here Arun?"

Arundel bit her lip, "This might take a while to tell."

"We have all night, hopefully."

"Two years ago I was contacted by a wizard called Harold Kirk who lives in New York, who said he was a collector of rare artefacts and he paid me handsomely to locate something called the Grants Artifact. He gave me enough research to spark my interest and I travelled down to the southern states and started to hunt through reports of haunted houses and awful killings until I finally found what I was looking for. In a house in some swamp in Florida, that must have once housed a wizarding family but was left to decay. As soon as I walked in the door I was fighting apparitions, visions, the whole house seemed to want to kill me. The doors locked and I had to blast through them, the walls expanded or contracted, ghostly apparitions attacked me with anything not pinned down and I found the house littered with corpses of people who had come before me and their ghosts attacked with frightening strength."

"That's horrible."

"Eventually I found the artefact, it was a small black kettle hidden up a chimney. As soon as I held it in my hands everything went still, but I'd never felt so powerful. I did my job and returned to Harold Kirk, I got my money and I moved on, but a month later he called me back and this time met me with a man called Mr Lace, I don't know his first name, but Mr Lace was a fellow from a society, and he made it known to me that they had requested me personally because of my dealings with the Dark Lord in England. He said they felt I could be trusted to act with discretion and then told me that there were seven Artifacts in total and he wanted them all."

"Did he say why?" Amber asked, sitting forward a little.

"No, and I went away dutifully, greedy, and secured another one for him, but this time I was curious. I researched and through my research found out the power of these artefacts and then I grew afraid. By the time I truly realised the implications Lace and Kirk had four of the artefacts. I secured the fifth but I didn't deliver, and I came to England where my research suggested the last two are hidden."

"And like James Deacon they are now coming for you?"

"I went to the Aura's but they told me to piss off, I saw Dumbledore and he wouldn't buy it but he offered me a job. Then I just flitted around for a bit trying to work out what to do next. I was over at Narcissa's and-" Arundel's sister rolled her eyes. Narcissa and Amber had a cold friendship but there was some respect there, though begrudging. "I was at Cisy's and they tried to set me back up with Severus."

Now her sister gawfed, "Some friends-" she left it hanging but Arundel didn't join in. "Oh," Amber muttered.

"Severus mentioned hauntings at Hogwarts. Hauntings that were so bad he's had to move Slytherin's common room out of the dungeons. I travelled to Hogwarts as soon as I'd put my artefact in my vault and I took Dumbledore up on his job offer."

"So now you're a professor?" her sister wondered. "And I suppose you couldn't keep away from Snape?" she pulled her hair over her shoulder. "I don't know why you're bothering to pretend to be a teacher, all you need to do is get the artefact and hide it, "

"If I do that, I'll be running for the rest of my life."

"What are you going to do then?"

Arundel shrugged.

"So, with all this going on, why did I see boyfriend trou-"

"Not my boyfriend."

Amber chuckled.

"But you want him, don't you?"

"I really want him, and he's been so lovely but I can't…" she couldn't get the words out, but the feeling of humiliation and shame overwhelmed her and her sister sat back with her eyebrows raised.

"What the hell?" she muttered. "Where did that come from? It's like...like drowning."

"It shouldn't feel like that right? It should be exciting."

"Yeah it should, it should feel exhilarating not, not whatever this is. It's like a revulsion."

"He said to me, 'I wish I could stop you from hating yourself.'"

"When he touches you?" her sister asked. "Does it make you happy?"

"It makes me sick," Arundel blinked. She shivered, despite the heat, and felt hot tears roll down her cheeks. "What's wrong with me? I like him so much it hurts and yet when he touches me I feel sick."

Amber shook her head, "Perhaps you don't like him that much."

"That's what I told myself before, but I've slept with seventeen other people in the time I've- what?"

"Seventeen," Amber spat. "One Seven? Seventeen?"

Arun winced.

"Oh sis," Amber held her hand up to her mouth, "Different people?"

"Yes," Arun started to get defensive. "It's not hard to do you know, you go to a bar and you find somebody you think you can stand and you smile," she pretended to smile, "And you ask them about themselves, and you lay your hand on their arm," she tilted her head and lay her hand on her sisters arm. "And eventually they think you love them and they are flattered and the talk gets a bit dirty and you get closer and they suggest their flat or the park or the, fuck, the toilets and its over and you never see them again. And for a little while you think things like 'I've still got it,' and then you feel a bit hollow, so you go shopping and you move to a different country and you take a few jobs and remember a time when you were with a man who made you laugh, who talked to you for hours about potions and hexes and politics and people and whom you left because, ultimately, every time he touched you, you felt like you were filthy."

"Some people like that feeling."

"I hate it."

"But you've had a relationship with somebody since. That Faro guy."

"Yes, but he was-" Arun shrugged. "Well, he's dead now so I'll say he was amazing and I was happy."

"You were bored."

Arun shrugged. "It's all too much at once. Snape knows about the artefacts and he'll want to help and I can't-" she paused. "I can't."

Amber cupped Arun's face in her hands and squeezed her cheeks together. "Snape," she said, as if talking to a child, "Is not as important as your safety."

"He said to me 'you know you're safe with me.' what's that even supposed to mean? What does he think happened to me?"

Amber blinked, "You're joking right?"

"Yes, but why would I be safe with him? I'm not safe anywhere."

"I don't think he meant it like that."

Arundel opened her mouth to protest and closed it again.

"I think he meant you don't need to worry about him hurting you."

Arun tilted her chin, "I don't."

Amber's smile was quite sad, she reached over and hugged her sister, "Love ya sis." she squeezed, and Arundel closed her eyes and didn't want to let go, but her sister pulled away. "I'm going to go to the Egyptian Old Magic Society to research destroying the Artefacts, I'll do it as a side project." she smiled. "And you get that one in Hogwarts and put it somewhere safe, then get yourself somewhere safe too."

"Where is safer than Hogwarts?"

Amber shrugged, "The less I know the better, I find that as soon as I start prying people take notice so…" she shrugged. "Does he know how you feel?"

"No."

"Maybe it's best if you don't tell him."

"What's wrong with me?"

Amber shook her head, she had no idea what to say. So much for big sisters having all the answers. "Seventeen," she said again.

"Oh, come on, you've had your fair share."

Amber looked offended, "Four," she said. "And I regret three of them. I didn't even lose my virginity until I was twenty two."

Arun gawped, she hadn't expected that.


	11. Chapter 11

The Insult

Arundel stayed with her sister the next day, they went sightseeing the way muggles do, with dark glasses on their faces, dressed in ridiculous muggle clothing. They walked along the Nile, and they visited the museums where the muggles had a number of magical artefacts lying dormant that they had no understanding of. They ate suggered sweets by a fountain, whilst watching camels being driven past, and listened to the call to Mecca without really understanding what it was. It was nice to just be with family. Amber doted on her but Arun knew the whole time she was with her sister Amber was constantly fretting about the time wasted from her purpose. At lunchtime Arun realised their shopping trip was more than just a waste of time, especially when Amber stopped by an ancient pillar and ran her hands across the stonework then compared it to a symbol in the notebook in her pocket. "You should go," she told her an hour or two later. "It's not that I don't want you here but-" the words were left unspoken. Their jobs conflicted. "I'll send correspondence to Hogwarts and if the Americans turn up I'll come to you. You're right you know."

"About _what_?" Arun asked.

"It is one of the safest places in Britain."

Arun nodded and smiled at her sister. "Will you be ok?"

"I have friends," she said. "As do you."

Arun disapperated soon after, but she wasn't ready to go back to Hogwarts and face Snape and teaching and the Artifacts. She had a flat in Berlin, more like a safe house, a room in a muggle squat above an awful bar called the Red where Neo Nazi's came to dance with machetes down their trousers, just in case they wanted to start trouble. The people who lived above were a mix of addicts and whores. Too addled to remember a girl who came and went without regularity and who made things float. Who occasionally protected them if one of the skinheads below wanted to assert his dominance in the most depraved and easily accessible way he could. They thought they hallucinated, she thought they were a useful kind of warning system. She kept some clothes and some books here. And her wand too, not that she ever used it any more. Not since it had utterly turned on her in her third year at Hogwarts. Perhaps for the best; she was more powerful now than she had ever thought it possible to be. Wands were crutches and made a person weak.

The charms she had used to lock her door were still intact when she picked her way through the filthy emancipated bodies of the junkies she resided with, her room was a grey matrice on the floor, and a bedside table salvaged from a skip. Clothes were hung on a bit of stolen scaffolding pipe and her books were in a trunk. If her sister saw this place she would vomit. The single window looked out over the smoking area of the bar below and she sat in the window seat and looked down.

Fenrir Greyback looked back up.

"Shit."

He raised a hand and waggled his fingers at her, a grin spread across his pointed teeth. She changed her clothes into something a bit more inconspicuous, a purple and black jumper, ripped jeans and a leather coat, and she met the werewolf in the smoking area. He passed her a cigarette and looked quite pleased with himself.

"Why are you here?"

"Heard you're working at Hogwarts?"

"Who told you that?" Arun asked with a frown.

"So it's true then?" Fenrir growled.

"Who told you?" Arun rounded on him, poking her finger into his chest.

"Oh," Fenrir's grin widened even more as he looked down at her, "How I would like to bite that off your slender little hand," and he nashed at her.

"The Daily Profit announced it?" she asked, angry that her name was in print.

"Get out of my head you little slut," his smile dropped.

"Why are you here, Fenrir," she asked again. "Are you going to tell me or will I have to force you?"

He began to growl, and turned his head away from her, busying himself with his cigarette. "There's talk. There are promises being made. You'd do well to step aside when it happens."

Arun's frown grew, "You're warning me as a friend?" she asked.

"You are, ain'tcha? My pal. My-" he leaned in. "Protector?" and he started to laugh, a long low disgusting laugh. "Hogwarts is a buffet, but I know you don't approve."

"Look at me Fenrir," Arun pressed but he physically turned away.

"I came from Koblenz to hang around under your junky flat and listen to three-chord punk. Knew it would only be a matter of time before you crawled back to this rathole. What's the matter? Teaching too much like real work?" he chuckled. "I'd be a good teacher. I'd teach those fucking wizards to respect Werewolves. I'd teach em to fear us, I'd teach them to _be_ us." he growled and rolled his shoulders. "I ain't going to tell you what's coming, but part of me suspects you know already."

Arun reached out to pull him round so she could lock eyes with him, but he was too strong for her to force him and at her touch he ran from the crowded muggle smoking area. She pushed her hands through her hair and groaned. Her name was in print. Her name was in print and Fenrir had a copy. Her name was in print and somebody plotting to attack Hogwarts. Her name was in print and the Americans would have seen it.

"Shit."

She made her way back to the little room. She was compromised. For all her talk of fighting, not running, she had to come up with a contingency plan. Collapsing onto her old mattress with her legs drawn up under her, she let out a long grown. One of the junkies moved past her door and looked in, "Hey man, bad trip?" he asked. His name was Sid, he was from Manchester.

"The worst," she muttered and he slunk in and sat next to her. "The Americans are after me, and I'm a professor at a university, and I'm dating a guy who makes me feel sick. A werewolf just gave me a warning, or a threat, not sure which, and I couldn't tell if he was flirting with me, I need to run but I don't know where to. If I run I'll be running for the rest of my life."

"Woah," he started to laugh and he scratched at the red welts on his itching skin, she observed him with pity and the realisation that they were not so different. "Bad trip man, what did you take?"

"A Grants Artifact," She told him, knowing that he didn't have a clue what she was talking about.

"Is that some kind of mushroom? I've got a guy-"

"Thanks, Sid but I'm not interested." She wondered, for a fleeting moment how muggles survived without a job. "What do you do when you run out of money and gear?"

Sid smiled his teeth a row of sad yellow and black stumps. "I beg, borrow and steal." Even his laugh was desperate. She clocked him looking around her sparse room. Nothing much to steal in here, sorry Sid.

Arundel puffed out her cheeks, talking to junkies was pretty one-sided. She decided a different line of questioning, "Question for you, Sid, when you're with a woman how does she make you feel?"

"Not half as good as the gear does," he grumbled. "I'd kill to feel anything these days, but it's all-" he let his hand rise and then decline down, accompanied by a whistle. He sniffed and scratched his welts again. "See ya," he said suddenly as if he'd just remembered something important, and he slunk off.

Arun swiped her door closed set wards to wake her upon any forced entry and fell asleep. When she woke up it was dark, and she could hear the screech and crash of the music playing in the bar below. Blue and purple light filled her room and the scent of smoke from the outdoor smoking area below leaked in through the window. She had no idea what time it was back in England, or what time it was here but she was hungry. So she got up, picked up her backpack and left the squat, intent to find her favourite muggle twenty four hour coffee shop. She ordered a black coffee and sat in the window studying the reflection of the lights above her table in the dark liquid. Severus' words echoed around her skull, 'you're safe with me' how dearly she wanted to believe him. How dearly she wanted to be one of those women, like Narcissa, who was constantly looking to somebody else to save them and finding it. But in truth, what could Severus do that she could not? What could he do to keep her safe other than preventing her from doing anything at all? She sniffed and brought the coffee to her lips. Outside two muggle fire engines and a number of police cars whizzed past. She watched them with sleep filled eyes, wondering what they were rushing to. The coffee shop waitress looked out of the window with wide eyes. When the shop phone rang she answered it, and Arundel listened, glad that she had learned the language.

"Yes- down the road- seriously?- yes- yes- gas! How many- No!" the woman's hand travelled to her mouth. "All of them?" She dropped the phone and ran out the door. Arundel followed her outside coffee cup still in her hand and looked in the direction of her safe house.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"The bar, the Red, it's-" she let out a whimper. "There was a gas explosion."

Arundel felt cold. Had Sid got out? was it gas or was it something else? She backed into the coffee shop, sat down and continued to drink her coffee. When the waitress came in she looked at Arundel like she was insane, "There's police all over the place, maybe I should close up, if there's one gas explosion there could be others, right?"

Arundel shrugged. "maybe," she said. Her hand travelled to her bag, it only had the items she'd taken to her sisters inside, her wand was in the Red, so now she was wandless. That was strange, though she didn't use it any more and it had abandoned her a long time ago, it was still odd to think that she was a Witch without a wand.

Arun kept her eyes on the road, half expecting to see American dark wizards looking for her, she'd seen their uniform before- pointy black hats and metal facemasks with crows beak noses. It'd be comical if she hadn't watched them use the killing curse on a muggle family who had stumbled across them by accident. It would be strange to see them in Muggle Berlin but not impossible.

"I know people who go to the Red. It's a Friday night-" the waitress let the implication hang, Arundel was a soundboard for her anxiety, nothing more, but the fact that she wasn't joining in was marking her out.

"It's awful," Arun said, and in playing along made herself invisible. "I'm going to look," but she had no intention of it, her heart was pounding in her chest, she was so sure this was to be her final battle. She walked out towards the Red but took a right before she reached it, as she walked she saw nobody that set off alarm bells. Loads of muggles sure, but none of them paid her any attention. With relief, she found a private corner and apperated from there to Hogsmeade, so much for her weekend away to clear her head.

Everywhere was closed, so she forced into the shrieking shack and slept huddled in a corner with a strong charm around her to confuse anybody that came too close to her. In the morning she went to the Three Broomsticks, had a bath and tried to get more sleep.

Lunch was a bland meal of ham and cheese, she sent a message to her sister to say about Fenrir's visit and the Red burning down, and then she made a list. A list of those who would help her, and those who would destroy her with their help, and those who sought to destroy her. When she was done only her sister and Snape were in the column of people she could trust and her sickening feeling only grew. She tapped her quill on the parchment to vanish her list then she took a separate piece of paper and wrote to Moody.

 _We need to talk, it is worth your time._

By midnight she was halfway through her lesson planning, but Moody had not turned up. By the morning she had spent twice as long planning for her lessons as it would take to teach them and still Moody hadn't arrived. The Owl she sent returned by the next lunchtime but it didn't have a return message. This put her in a foul mood, so she sat in her rented room drinking butterbeer on her own and reading the whole of the Daily Proffit. There was no mention of Berlin, no mention of the explosion or reports of American dark wizards and that made her angry too because she was sure the explosion hadn't been an accident.

It was only Sunday, she still had Monday off but she felt like she had been away for weeks. Thursday night she had been with her sister, Friday was a mix of Berlin and the shrieking shack. Saturday had been lesson planning in the Three Broomsticks and Sunday she had just sat around all day. Her hair was a mess, her skin looked like it was sliding off her face. She was cold, despite having sat by her fire all day waiting for Moody. Her mouth felt like a hairy carpet and quite frankly she was dreading teaching again.

A knock sounded at her door. She jumped out of her skin and realised that in her reaction had created a protective shield around herself.

"Ere, Arun, you in there?"

Hagrid. A different kind of panic took hold, the kind that didn't want anybody to see how utterly disgusting she was. She floundered around the room "Just a moment!" domestic spells were not her forte, she had to say the words to get her clothes to fold and the books to stack. She ran to pull on her clothes and ran her hand through her hair to try and detangle it then wrenched the door open. "Hi!"

Hagrid gave her a wide smile, and didn't even look beyond her, "Alright Arun? Told you were up ere, thought you might want to have a drink," he pushed past her into the room and sat down on her sofa.

"Who told you I was here?"

"Madam Rosmerta, she was saying she doesn't understand why you're staying ere when you have a perfectly good bed at the…" Hagrid stopped talking, realising that he might be saying something he will regret. Arun didn't mind, but she made a mental note to stay at the hogshead in the future, Madam Rosmerta talked too much.

"Too much like school," Arun shrugged.

"Well, I thought you might like somebody to talk to. We're a strange bunch us teachers. We don't always extend a welcoming hand you know, but that don't mean we don't want you with us."

It was nice of Hagrid to say it but the fear and stress of the past few days made her weary, she couldn't help wonder if he had a different motive than pure friendship. "Sure," she said. "I've been cooped up in here lesson planning all day, my eyes feel like they are going to drop out of my head. I had to Accio all my notes and marking from the castle last night."

Hagrid chuckled, "I don't envy you Arun, McGonagall's been teaching the same lessons for so many years her notes are turning brown, so I guess it gets easier."

Arun chuckled, "Is it just you here?"

"Aye, most ave lessons on Monday morning, those who don't might come in a bit later for a pint but it won't be all of us."

Arun followed him downstairs, ordered a dumpling and beef stew and a butterbeer, Hagrid had a firewhisky but he'd eaten at the castle. There wasn't a huge number of people in this afternoon. The weather was pretty poor and it had turned unreasonably cold so those who were in huddled together with a depressing urgency. Rosmerta shot Arun dark look as she cleaned tankards behind the bar and when Arun turned to make eye contact with her she felt a wash of apprehension and disgust, the fleeting memory of death eaters torturing her friend on the floor by the fire, she turned away without Rosmerta ever knowing Arun had looked inside her head. Hagrid was talking about something, some animal he'd found that changed into a little monster when it got wet. He'd taken it as a pet, but it'd attacked him. He had a long gash up his arm that he seemed quite proud of. Arun half listened to him, nodding when she needed to, asking him questions about the creature to make it seem she was interested but her eyes were darting around, studying the people in the pub, working out who they were, if they were a threat.

"...and that's why I said to Dumbledore that e'd better not use em in the dungeons."

"Hum?" Arun's attention snapped back to him. "Dungeons?"

"That's right. Dumbledore says that they give some kind of early warning, but I don't know why he'd want em down there in the first place."

Arun thought about it for a moment, but she drew a blank too, "I don't know. What's Dumbledore said about the Dungeons? What's he going to do about...whatever's down there?"

Hagrid chuckled and leaned in closer, "I reckon he aint got a clue what's down there. Those hauntings don't happen all the time you know, always been a bit creepy in the vaults mind, used to get a strange smell like decaying meat every month or so, and then there would be the scuttling in the pipes and the ghostly feelings, the water dripping and the groaning, the feeling somebody was breathing down u'r neck...but not like it's been recently."

"So what changed? Did somebody bring something new into the castle?"

"I don't think so," Hagrid pouted. "Though it were a busy summer, the ministry asked Dumbledore to…" Hagrid's eyes widened and he sat back and ran a hand over his beard. "Anyway, reason I brought my Hogglepop down there was...what?"

"Hogglepop? Did you make that up?" she glossed over his slip up for fear of losing him altogether.

"Nah," Hagrid chuckled. "Them's called Hogglepops, only native to Scotland mind, a bit like the Haggis."

"Haggis is a type of muggle food,"

And a type of wizard animal-" Hagrid shook his head, "Not much of one though, just a tiny hairy looking cow, not enough to eat even."

"Do you think I could show my students it?" she asked sweetly, "I'm sure they would love to see the effect water has on one."

"I dunno that they would," Hagrid sighed. You want to avoid getting your students in danger, the owls from parents can be horrible.

"Is that a thing, do parents really write? Mine never did, even when I failed my OWLs."

Hagrid was stunned for a moment, "You…"

"Failed. Yes."

"But…."

"No wand."

He sat stunned for a bit then he leaned forward, "You was banned?"

"No, my wand hated me. I was learning non-verbal wandless magic in my third year but as I got better at controlling my powers my wand grew less and less compliant. I hid that it didn't work by carving a piece of wood with no core to look like I was still doing what everybody else was doing, but you know you have to turn your wands in for inspection before exams to stop cheating spells and mine was found to be a fake. I was called up in front of the Wizengamot and they said that I had to sit with my wand even if it hated me. It backfired, I failed," she shrugged. "Then I left. I was so humiliated I didn't even stay for the ones I could do without it."

"Merlins Beard Arun, you ask any teacher who was around then and they'll say you were one of the best students they've ever had. I didn't know…"

"It was curse breaking, tomb raiding and business as usual after school, I got my jobs through reputation and being very overconfident in my abilities. Not long after the war broke out."

At the mention of the war, Hagrid looked a bit awkward.

"You have questions about me? It's ok Hagrid, everybody does."

"I just-" Hagrid stopped saying what he wanted to say, but Arun could see the thought behind the unspoken question in his head. ' _The Dark Lord didn't take kindly to indifference and neutrality, so either you lie and you were one of his followers, or you have something or someone protecting you.'_

He settled with, "It can't have been easy?"

"People seem to forget I sold weapons to the Minister of Magic too. Both my _protectors_ are removed from post and those who worked for them largely mistrust and hate me. The Aura's never saw value in my work, Dumbledore finds my morals abhorrent. Even you're nervous."

Hagrid scratched his beard again and picked up his drink, he seemed a bit more on a sure footing with the liquor nursed in his hand. "You can't blame folk for being curious. They want to know what Dumbledore sees in ya now."

"I'd like to know that as well," Arun told him and picked up her own drink. "But unfortunately for me, he's a skilled occulmans."

Hagrid stayed for two more drinks, and most of their conversation centred around teaching. By the time he left she had the next three weeks planned, and Hagrid was happy to secure her the creatures she needed. She in return agreed to help him look after the ones he already had on school grounds, and together they planned to enlist a number of the more keen students to help too. They said their good night and she went back to her room, and for the first time in days, she slept soundly.


	12. Chapter 12

Creatures of habit

The week's teaching left Arun with very little time for anything else. Her evenings were taken up with marking and preparing for the next morning or helping Hagrid. She still hadn't managed to get down in the dungeons, but nobody reported anything disturbing. She hadn't seen Severus to ask him about Filch, he hadn't been in the morning briefings and when she had been to his classroom he was not there. She'd asked Minerva McGonagall, who had come to audit her planning and observe one of her classes, if Snape was at school and had been told yes but had she pushed much more it would have seemed suspicious. By Thursday Arun had a routine, wake up at six thirty, wash and dress, briefing and breakfast, lessons back to back, work through lunch and break, more lessons, help Hagrid with the animals, dinner at six, return to room, mark books, read until bed and sleep. When Friday hit she had no idea what to do with her time and dressed in her warmest jumper and leggings she decided that she couldn't waste any more time sitting idle. She took herself to the student library and started to hunt the history section.

"Hi Professor," a girl greeted her. Arun looked up with bleary eyes and saw long auburn hair, and a heart-shaped face set atop a long neck.

"Oh, hello Freya."

"You've been here for a while? I've got free periods this morning but Professor Snape set us a test and he's marking it like our NEWTs so-" she shrugged, "I'm here."

"In the history section?" Arun asked, her eyes travelling down to the names on the books Freya was holding. _A history of hauntings. Curses of the old magic._ And _a hundred useful tips from the brewing masters._ So not a complete lie.

Freya held up the last book, "There must be something…"

"What's the potion?"

The sixth-year brightened, and took a seat next to Arun, she leaned in to whisper because Madam Prince had appeared at the end of the history section and peered at them down her bespectacled nose. "It's a volubilis Potion, I tried to brew it last night but it turned red and then solidified- I wrecked my caldron."

"Show me your notes, if you have them."

Freya deposited her books onto the table next to Arun and started to hunt in her bag. Arun saw that Freya had drawn a map of the dungeons, and in tiny writing had mapped out where the attacks had happened. Her friend Jacob was by the entrance to the lower vaults, Filch was deep inside them, she had written _Snape?_ In the corner of the page and the Slytherin boy had been inside the vaults too- not in the common room like Arun had supposed. Snape's quarters in the dungeon were where? She wondered. Perhaps deeper down than the potions rooms.

"Here it is," Freya opened her workbook and showed Arun her notes. Arun reached into her own bag for a quill and underlined where Freya had gone wrong.

"Too long at that temperature will wreck it, you didn't add enough honey water-"

"-But the book says-"

"I know what the book says but the book is wrong, add two hundred mills more and it will stop it getting too thick at the end. Once the mix turns pink, let it cool but not completely, then you will find it turns orange. You don't want to wait until it's dark orange before the next stage- you want to get it on the turn, a kind of skin colour, and then take it off the heat and add the sprigs."

Freya took her workbook back and started to make notes, Arun watched her to see when she was ready for the next instructions.

"Why do I take it off the heat rather than increasing the heat like it says to do in the book?"

"Because the sprigs will degrade too quickly and turn it sour. If you do it this way you will get a bright blue, like a summer sky, not a dark blue, and when it's bright blue then you add the other sprigs- crush them, don't cut them and you will make a more powerful mix."

"Really?"

"Crushing usually is better for a stronger potion."

"Okay, so, what next?"

"The potion will go from blue to pink- a very bright pink, and when it looks like it will turn red you add the stewed Mandrake and take it off the heat. When it goes orange whack the heat up really high and add the syrup of hellebore and it'll go to a dark blue and smell like seaweed. Keep the heat up, the potion will thicken and turn red. Then reduce to a simmer and it will go yellow and start to spark."

Freya put a full stop and sat back, "Thank you!" she exclaimed. "I wish Professor Snape would tell us this." she pouted and Arundel felt a wave of protective annoyance. "I don't understand why he teaches here, he clearly hates us. I guess nobody else would have him, he was a death eater you know."

Arun leant forward, a wicked smile spread across her face. "Was he?" she asked.

"That's what I was told. One of the worst, but the headmaster gave him a job, apparently, he was a spy, but I don't believe it."

"Why?" Arun asked.

"Because…" Freya stopped talking, she put a hand over her mouth as she realised she was talking to a Professor. Arun's nasty smile still slit across her face.

"You know he's better at making potions than I am? Do you realise how talented he is?"

Freya sat back and crossed her arms, "he could make more of an effort to show us then."

"Perhaps he thinks that you should make more of an effort to learn, instead of holding your hand like I am. Perhaps you don't understand why your potions are going wrong because you don't understand diffusion or the properties of heating and cooling. Perhaps, in failing, you are learning a more valuable lesson. One I am now stopping you from learning for your happiness and my convenience."

Freya went red.

"Snape's no more of a Death Eater than I am, and remember who you are talking to."

The girl looked like she might cry, Arun realised that up until this point the girl had held her in high esteem but now she felt humiliated that was broken. Now hurt would turn to resentment and then it would end with bitterness and hatred, and she understood in that moment just why Snape bypassed all that with his students and just got to the point. 'You hate me, I hate you, now shut up and let's get this over with.'

"Sorry professor, I should have realised you were friends. I should have thought…" But Arun was wrong, the girl was trying to make amends.

"Freya, go and practice your potion."

Freya stood, nodded and hurried away with her books in her arms. When Arun turned back she realised that she had left open her own research on the American civil war and Wisdon Grant.

After lunch, which was a luxury to eat, she made her way down to Hagrid's hut where she hoped to visit the Hogglepops, but Hagrid wasn't in. It was one of those awful days where the sky was heavy with white mist and rain, and all noise seemed deadened. The wind was ice chilled so when a screech came from the Forbidden Forest she wasn't sure if it was the cold or the noise that made her shiver. She was about to go back to the castle with the intention of actually locating her office and living quarters but her conversation with Fenrir replayed in her head and she paused, looked back to the Forest and decided it couldn't be ignored.

The world changed under the trees, the light was dulled, the sounds of dripping water and the scent of wet foliage and mushroom compost filled her nose. She followed a path for at least half an hour, until the trees grew so thick that there wasn't any natural light any more. She didn't know much about tracking, so she made herself as conspicuous as possible, casting _Lumos Maximus_ to light her way and alert anything lurking to her presence. After an hour more she started to think about turning back, and she let her light dull as she turned and retraced her steps.

"Halt!" a commanding voice cut through the dark. The rumble of hooves shook the ground under her feet and the shadow of Centaur's surrounded her. "What are you doing intruding so deep into our kingdom?"

"I come with a warning," Arun told the figures in the shadow.

"You need not have bothered, it is foretold."

Arun remembered the Centaurs put a lot of stock into reading the heavens, "Then you know to keep a watch for the Werewolves or others trying to get through the forest to attack the school? I know the stars," Arun told them. "But the stars are not as specific as me. Fenrir Greyback is plotting something and you need to keep watch."

Her words were met with silence. She turned in her circle looking at the shadows, and then the shadows were gone, they had heard her but what they decided to do next had nothing to do with her. She sighed and made her way back, feeling like she hadn't done enough to prevent an attack.

In her classroom, she started to search for her office, but she couldn't find it anywhere. In the hallway she started banging on bricks, looking behind pictures and twitching tapestries until a crowd of students stopped to watch her.

"What are you doing professor?" one ginger-haired student she was sure she taught asked.

"I can't find my office."

This was met with a chorus of giggles.

"The old Professor must have had one?" Arun speculated as she continued to search. "Hidden door or…." she paused by a picture of a unicorn. It bowed to her and galloped away and in its place a door formed. She turned to the students and gave them a huge grin. "Finally!" They replied by clapping. "Go on," she told them, "Don't you have classes to attend?"

Once they had sloped off, Arun grasped the door handle cursed herself for feeling so excited. This would be her room, her sacred space, her _home_ whilst she pretended to teach here. She pictured how comfortable it would be, how full of curio's and creatures and, she was sure, all manner of books left behind by her predecessor. She opened the door with her eyes closed and stepped inside.

With her eyes still closed she felt cold air play on her skin, the scent of damp stone and mould, and when she opened her eyes she felt the corners of her mouth fall.

"My god," she muttered.

The room was bare, the window missing, the fire covered in a layer of filth from a dirty chimney, the bookshelves were missing books and the desk was missing panels, there was a dried brown bloodstain near the door to the living quarters, and when she managed to pull the warped wood open she saw a mess of destroyed furniture, a wet bed, more broken windows and cleared out shelving.

"Okay," she muttered and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. A moment's thought and she was back in her classroom dragging her trunk out across the hall and into the mess of her new study, she sat on the lid picturing how she wanted it to look when she was finished. She pictured a hoard of books filling the walls either side of the fireplace, which would be left bare stone. She would have two tanks of snakes, and some hanging baskets for Pixies and birds. She would have spinners like her sisters and a Fools Mirror should anybody try to trick her with polyjuice. Ambers picture could hang in her living quarters. Where she would keep a stock of potions and a cauldron as well as a space to train, something she had neglected since coming here. The sofa in her living quarters would be a leather one, and directly in front of the fire. And she would get some fun plants to hang near the windows or stand in the corners. A bigger bed would be needed, and a complete overhaul of the excuse of a bathroom (sink and toilet and a hole in the floor where there should be a bath plumbed) She'd get a bewitched muggle kettle and a cold box for milk so she could have tea and coffee whenever she wanted, and then it would be fine. If she started now, by Monday it could be done, but first, she needed to place some orders. She snapped her fingers and a little houself appeared and studied her, "How may I help you?"

"I need you to get me enough books about magical creatures that it will fill two bookshelves either side of this fireplace," she pointed. "And enough books on potions, charms, hexes and old magic to fill another three bookshelves in the room back there." Arun paused, "Do you know what happened in here?"

"This room has not been used for years Professor," the elf told her. "The last one to use it was eaten by a mugwump. The others have all used the store cupboard in the classroom."

"There's a store cupboard?"

"Oh yes! It's a trapdoor behind the desk."

Arun pouted, she preferred her discovery. "Well, the books are just the start. I'm going to need new furniture and a huge list of things to decorate…"

"Just ask, I shall find for you."

But Arun wanted the books first. So she told the elf that she would get the room ready and the little creature nodded and disappeared. For the next three hours, Arun sat on the floor with her eyes closed directing the clean up like a conductor. Bookshelves formed, the chimney was vanished clean, the glass replaced itself. The bloodstain she left, she actually quite liked it. She vanished the furniture and destroyed the mould in the corners of the room, cleaned up the walls and ceiling and floor.

By the time she opened her eyes she was sat in complete darkness, but the room was dry and the wind had stopped blowing. She went for tea, and ate alone in the noisy Great Hall, thinking only of her room and what she wanted to do next to make it comfortable. She was so lost to her own thoughts that she didn't see Snape stride up to her until he was stood in front of her.

"Don't tell my students how to brew potions," he said.

"Eh?"

"I said-"

"I know what you said, when you get angry you still have an accent."

Snape's lip curled, "No I don't. I've spent years getting rid of it."

"And it comes back when you get angry, _Tobias_."

"I'm not angry."

"Then it comes back when you are annoyed," Arun smiled at him. "Where _have_ you been?"

"It's not nice when people just disappear, _is it?"_ Snape hissed back at her, and he came around the table to sit next to her. "What are you eating?"

"It's the soup course first, this is pea and ham I think."

Snape spooned some into his bowl and sipped at it, then he took a chunk of bread and covered it in butter, and sat back to look at the people in the hall. "Lucius asked if we would like to go to Sunday lunch, I might say yes but I need to go back home first."

"Home as in Cokeworth?" Arun asked.

"Where else?"

She shrugged, "Thought you were done with that place?"

"I am," he muttered and she caught his eye, he looked quite upset.

"I'm not doing anything tomorrow," she told him. "I was going to go down to the vaults but it can wait, it's all gone quiet anyway."

He shrugged and carried on eating.

"We could stay at yours and then go to the Malfoys after."

Snape turned his head to her, "really?" he asked, as if she were mad. Arun knocked his leg with her knee and gave him an encouraging smile.

"Really," she said.

When she went back to her office she found that the bookshelves had been filled. The house elf turned up a little later to see if she was happy and she told it that she was delighted and gave it a list of furniture she wanted. She asked about payment but the elf said that it'd found everything in the castle anyway. She slept once again inside her travel trunk on her horribly uncomfortable sofa with a blanket that was too thin in this cold weather. Tomorrow would be the start of December and she was buggered if she was going to be living inside her suitcase at Christmas. The portrait of Amber cleared her throat, "Update Sis!"

"Hi, Amber!" Arun matched her eager tones and giggled to herself at what she believed to be an accurate mockery.

" I, that is to say, your sister has located the tomb and laid claim to its contents for the wizarding world, The ministry is considering giving me, her, an Order of Merlin Third Class honour for it but that would mean coming back to England and I'm, we're...she's researching for you and studying the contents of the temple so...not going to come back...sorry."

"Any news on the Grants Artifacts?"

"No, but we're looking older. Looking at the nature of the items and how to destroy them. There was a period of time, around the Roman Empire, when there cursed objects of power were popular so that's where we are starting." The painting of Amber leaned forward, seemingly to see more of the room, "You still in your travel trunk?"

"Moving out soon. I found my office and rooms, they are in a really bad state though. I'll need to sleep elsewhere whilst I get a bed."

"In with Snivellus?"

"Don't call him that."

Amber smiled, "and…?"

"We're fine, I haven't seen him much but I'm going away with him for the weekend."

"Anywhere nice?"

"Cokeworth."

"Oh...romantic."

"Sod off."

Painting Amber giggled. "Wrap up warm. See you soon."

She slept badly and met Snape in the hall for breakfast. He was dressed in his usual uniform black robes but she'd put on muggle clothes under dark green robes that tied in at the waist. The magic sky in the great hall showed rainfall and dark clouds and both of them looked up with a frown. "Every time," Snape muttered.

"It's called foreshadowing," Arun told him with a wicked grin. "When are we going and how are we travelling?"

"Apparition, and from Hogsmeade, I need to go shopping first."

They travelled in a coach from the school to the town, and though Snape didn't tell Arun what he was buying she realised quite quickly that it was the ingredients for a cooling salve, very similar to the one he had used on her face after she had been beaten by the dark lord a few years ago for laughing at an inappropriate time. As he shopped his jaw set hard. His eyes connected with Arun, she didn't dare say anything but he saw she knew what was happening and practically sagged.

"It's nearly ten am," she told him.

"I'm done, we should go," he offered her his arm and together they apperated to Cokeworth, two long rows of yellow brick Victorian terraces stretched away from them, and the rain came down so heavily that she couldn't see the end of it. As they walked down Spinners End to Snape's parent's house they saw a light on and could hear shouting. Snape stopped, the rainwater dripping off of his hair so that it hung in rats tails, Arun saw his apprehension and she squeezed his arm.

"Come on," she coaxed.

Together they stood on the doorstep, Severus rung the doorbell but the shouting didn't stop, Arun could hear Tobias even with the door closed, "How many books do you need woman?" he cried, "All my money goes on your fucking books. I've read some of em! Bunch of hocus pocus shit. What are you going to do with that ahy? Fucking useless bitch."

"Let off Toby," a woman sneered. "So jealous of what you don't have, so so jealous."

"Jealous!" Tobias laughed, there was a crash and a sound of swearing and he started to laugh. "Your nothing without this though, are you woman? Nothing without this stupid stick to wave around like it's a fucking gun."

Severus reached up and rang the doorbell again, his face was very long and very pale.

"Who the fuck is that?" there were footsteps, the door wrenched open and Tobias Snape looked down upon his son with distaste. "Look what the cat's dragged in," he muttered. He looked like melted wax, his skin grey and yellow like the tobacco he smoked had stained him. Grey hair was scraped back into a ponytail, with large chunks of dandruff nestled amongst the sebum. "Run out of money? Had enough playing magic? How dare you come round here looking like a fucking faggot in that dress. Haven't you any shame?" he hocked back a phlegm ball and turned to let them through. He hadn't even looked at Arun, she was beneath his contempt she supposed. "I'm going to t'pub," Tobias grumbled, grabbed his coat and his wallet and stormed out of the door. As he left he shoved something into his pocket. Arun realised it was his wife's wand.

"Mum?" Snape called from the dark hallway.

Something dropped in shock, a book maybe, Arun heard a curse, and then footsteps from behind the living room door. "Oh, Sev love!" his mum kept the left side of her face turned away from them, she cupped Severus' face and smiled at him ever so warmly. "Sev," she said again, "You didn't need to…"

"I thought you might need more-" Severus stopped talking as he saw the mess in the living room. Eileen Snape had a huge collection of books, they filled the walls and the doors piled up on the floor next to the threadbare furniture. But they were scattered, some were on the fire.

"Don't worry love, just an accident." his mum smiled, one of her teeth was missing. "You going to brew me up some more face cream? Aintcha a good boy."

"Mum-" Snape pushed wet hair from his face and dripped onto the living room floorboards. "I thought you said he'd stopped drinking? You told me he'd been better."

"Oh- look you're like a drowned rat- there are clothes in your room, give me these and I'll get them dry. Got my wand around here somewhere-" she gave Arun the briefest of smiles and turned to pretend to look for it. Snape pointed his wand at himself and with a few words had dried his clothes, then he turned his attention to Arun and did the same for her.

"It's alright mum I've done it."

"Have you? so quick, you are talented," she gave him a far-off smile and for a moment appeared so very lost. Arun realised Eileen was shaking, was she an alcoholic too, like her horrid husband?

"Mrs Snape," she said gently, "Go and sit down, I'll put the kettle on."

"Kitchen's through-" she waved a hand to the hallway. Arun slunk off to give Snape and his mum some privacy. The kitchen was tiny and hadn't been updated since the sixties, the units were falling off the walls and it smelled like tobacco and cooking fat. She saw mouse droppings in the corner by the fridge and a layer of grime and dirt had turned the countertops sticky. When she looked in the cupboards all she found was a box of Marshmallow Krispies and a tin of spam.

"Merlin's beard," she muttered as she put the kettle onto the gas hob and found a blue top milk bottle in the fridge. A fridge that was pretty much bare, and in desperate need of a clean. There was a sprouting potato in there, along with a mouldy half of bread. She wanted to clean, but part of her knew that it would make everything worse. Tobias would resent it, and would punish Eileen for it. Whilst she waited for the water to boil she snuck back to listen to Snape's conversation with his mum. At first, she could only hear muttering, but a quick spell improved her hearing.

"I love your father Sev."

"I can afford to buy you a nice place in a magical community away from him. Don't you want to be amongst your own people?"

"Tobias is all the magic I need, he'll see me right lad."

Severus let out an audible sigh, "Mum, he hits you."

"It's my fault, I can be insensitive."

"Stop making excuses."

"He needs me Sev, since the factory closed we've not got any money coming in. He'd die without me."

"Stop protecting him."

"Son-" There was a pause, Arun leaned closer to the door. "Sev, you're such a good boy, do you know how proud I am of you?" Another pause. "I won't leave him."

The kettle whistled, the sound cut through her head like a poker. She winced, reversed the spell on her hearing and went back to the kitchen. A moment later and she levitated three cups of tea into the living room.

"Ta love, cracking brew, that," Snape's mum smiled up at her, and for the first time Arun saw the damage to the side of her face. One of her eyes was bloodshot, she had swelling under her eyebrow and onto her cheek and the thin part of her eyebag was purple and brown. It was three days old at least. Severus looked up at Arun with deep and resounding hopelessness.

"Do you want me to make the face cream?"

Severus shook his head, "No, I'll do it myself," he told her and he took his bag and his cup of tea into the kitchen. As he walked away she saw moisture glisten in his eyes. She took his seat and smiled at Eileen.

"How are you keeping? It's been a while."

"That it has love," Eileen reached out and took her hand, "You keeping my boy out of trouble?"

"That's easier said than done."

"He said you'd gone," Eileen leaned in. "Glad you came back though." she sipped her tea, "I do love a good brew, you make the best."

"Did he say why I left?"

"No, he tries not to take after his father, but-" she left the assumption hang and Arun put her cup of tea down and turned to give Eileen her full attention.

"He would never raise his fist to me, he's not a coward."

Eileen said nothing for a moment, then she reached out and took Arun's hand. "Sometimes," she whispered. "Sometimes I think about going. But Toby, here, on his own. He'd not last a moment."

"Why don't you kick him out?"

"It's his house love, he worked for it. I'd not take it from him."

Arun rested her own hand over Eileen's, "One day, he's going to go to far and he's going to kill you."

To her surprise Snape's mum didn't seem too worried, "he hasn't yet..."

"You think your son would ever forgive you if he did?" Arun leaned in. "Sev's giving you a way out."

"I don't need a way out." Eileen snapped. "Tobias loves me, he wouldn't go too far, sometimes I just mess up. He's a kind man really, you just don't know him."

Arun picked up her cup of tea again and gave Eileen a sad smile. Into the evening they talked and read and spoke about the school. Arun played Eileen at gobbelstones and was squirted in the face. Snape played and gave his mum a better run for her money but he too got squirted. They treated her bruises and Arun went to the chippy to get them tea. But as the night wore on Tobias didn't come home. Eileen went to bed but Arun and Severus stayed up, and though they both wanted to talk about his parents they avoided it. A little after two in the morning, when Arun was thinking about bed there was a knock at the door.

"Did he forget his keys?" Arun asked. But he hadn't. Paramedics came and told them that Tobias Snape had a heart attack at the working man's club, he'd died before the paramedics had managed to get an ambulance to him. And it's taken them so long to let the family know because all he had on him was a wooden poker and cash. They'd found the house because his pocket knife had his full name engraved. A knife Severus had bought him for his fiftieth.

Eileen came down to talk to them, Arun had never seen somebody so distraught as if years of pent-up misery was unstoppered and poured out for everybody to see. Snape told the paramedics to leave, Arun walked them out and asked if they had his things and they handed them over on the doorstep. Eileen's wand was broken in half, and the cash was a few bob of loose change. Into the morning Severus held his mother as she cried, and Arun cleaned the house.


	13. Chapter 13

Discombobulate

Arun ran her hand over the threadbare sheets on Severus's childhood bed. She opened her eyes and looked up at a patch of peeling wallpaper thick with grey spiders webs. It was still dark, which meant she had only managed a few hours at most. Next to her Sev was asleep, but his brow was knitted. He held onto her like his life depended on it and when she moved his eyes flicked open and he gasped, still deep in a dream.

"It's ok, I just need some water."

Snape nodded and his head floated back onto the pillow. She sat at the end of his bed for a while, looking at the childish drawings that littered the walls of his room. She saw one that said, 'you're my best friend Sev, I can't wait to be at Hogwarts with you- Lily.' and under it two stick figure people, one with red hair and one with black stood hand in hand smiling. Another, drawn by an older hand, showed a dark figure posing with a cauldron, with a selection of crudely drawn people bowing at his feet, one of them with flame red hair, and the words above said 'The Half-Blood Prince.' There was a selection of newspaper cuttings stuck up too, including one from the day the Potters were assassinated with a picture of Lily. Arun ran a hand over her hair and wondered what she would look like with auburn hair, not as good she suspected. She looked back at Severus, his hair was covering his face and he breathed deeply as he slept. Who was it that told her 'death was just the start of another great adventure?' Maybe it was Grindalwold. One of that old guard who had searched for the hallows, one of the wizards who studied the resurrection stone. She had to wonder if Severus looked forward to his own death, just so he could see her again.

Without making a sound she crossed to the door and tiptoed back downstairs. In the living room she heard the patter of rodent feet, and in the kitchen, she saw shadows disappear behind counters as she entered the room. A clock told her it was coming up for six in the morning, Severus would want to cancel the Malfoys. He'd want to stay with his mum and if that were the case she would need to get them some f-

"Arun!"

She jumped, the glass fell from her hand and shattered on the floor.

"Arun!" Severus sounded panicked. She ran upstairs as fast as she could and skidded to his side by the bathroom.

"Oh no," Arun breathed.

Snape was frozen to the spot.

Arun pushed past him and ran to Eileen's side, she pulled her into the recovery position and checked her airways. She was mottled purple down one side of her body where her blood had settled. Her eyes were open, unblinking and she was cold to the touch. Next to the toilet was a bottle, Arun snatched it up and studied it, she recognised it instantly.

"I'm so sorry Sev, she's gone."

A change came over Severus' face, all emotion drained away. He nodded, turned and went back to bed. Arun hung her head, ran her hand across Eileen's cold, dead fingers and whispered how sorry she was, then told Eileen that she had been selfish.

She wrapped the body in a sheet from the bed and decided to transfigure it. She turned Eileen into a dark crystal ball, which mirrored the night sky and showed the multitude of stars and the milky way. As she worked she didn't notice Severus get up to watch her, she didn't see him go downstairs, or light the fire, or sit with his hands over the flames until they burned, because he felt nothing and he wanted dearly to feel something, anything, more than empty and hollow.

Arun brought the crystal ball down and without words, she handed it to Severus. He stood looking into the depths of the stars for a long time, then he turned and placed it on the bookshelf, next to her gobblestones set.

Arun slipped her hand into his and rested her head on his shoulder.

"We're going to be late for lunch," he told her.

"Do you still want to go?"

"Is there something keeping me here?"

"Sev…" she was momentarily lost for words. "Whatever you need to do."

They apperated outside the Malfoy's gates and they were met by a servant called Portmore. He gave them a deep respectful bow and opened the gates to let them through, "Welcome, welcome. I trust your journey wasn't taxing?"

"It was as expected," Snape told him.

Arun stayed quiet.

Malfoy Manor was always a welcoming sight for Arun, but today she felt apprehensive. She didn't know if Snape wanted her to talk about what had happened or stay quiet, she didn't know if the American's had made contact with Lucius and told him she had double-crossed them. She felt sick, and round and round in her head went the image of finding Eileen on the floor of the bathroom.

Narcissa met them on the steps. She swept down and took Arun's hands and kissed her on the cheek, then she did the same to Severus, "I'm so glad you could make it," she smiled. "And together too!" Clearly, she credited herself with getting them back together.

"Thank you for the invite Cissy," Arun gave her a warm smile.

"Come on, it's cold get inside."

"How are the peacocks?" Arun asked as they moved into the hallway.

"Ah, I thought I heard your voices!" Lucius poked his head out of the door and smiled, "Come and warm up in here, I've got a roaring fire going and a very fine elf wine for you to try. Severus will have to work out what vintage it is."

"I'm sure I can oblige," Snape told him. Arun turned to go into the parlour but Narcissa held out a hand and stopped her.

"Come and see my greenhouse," she said. "I've got a fantastic crop of Molly and I want to show you my Shrivelfig's."

"Don't be rude," Arundel giggled and followed her dutifully through the house and out into an orangery where Narcissa's pride and joy, her collection of magical plants were carefully tended to.

"These are looking good," Arun studied the creeping vines that hung from the glass roof. The variety of plants, magical and beautiful and creeping was astounding and overwhelming together. "Do you ever let Draco or Lucius in here?"

"I don't let anybody in here, this is my sanctum," Narcissa grinned and took a deep and satisfied sigh. "It's too dangerous for Little Draco in here, and honestly, Lucius caring for plants? Severus askes me to grow things for him from time to time, plants he can't get hold of, sometimes ones that are banned."

Arun looked around the room again, she couldn't see anything particularly illegal growing. Narcissa pulled on gloves and started to prune, "So?" She asked with a smile, "Talking about Severus...?"

Arundell rolled her eyes and pretended to be very interested in the Molly plants.

"Don't you dare tell me it's 'complicated.' Arundel Granville."

"Cissy-" Arun opened her mouth, shrugged and closed it again. "We're taking it slow." whatever that meant, she couldn't think of much more 'full on' than finding your partners mother dead from an overdose on the night his abusive father died.

"Oh?" Narcissa waved some pruning shears at her friend, "I'd expect nothing less, of course, Severus is a true gentleman." She put the sheers down and looked up at Arun as if weighing her words carefully. "The business before, I don't want to pry, but you were so upset with him and you never told me why. He wouldn't either, he said you had enough of him, that there was something in his character you found abhorrent."

"Melodramatic as usual," Arundel sighed. "The Dark Lord was obsessing over killing a child, he didn't have much work for me at that point and my sister extended an invitation."

Narcissa realised Arun didn't want to say more, and she was good enough to let it lie. "There is something else I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh?"

"A man came to call, He was a tall man, out of shape, with cowboy boots on under his dress robes. He was quite abrupt, and his accent was really- well- American. He said he was called Harrold Kirk, he claimed he was working for-"

Arun held up her hand. "Cissy, don't get involved."

"Lucius entertained him but I was present during the conversation. He says he is collecting artefacts that could bring the Dark Lord back, but that you are stopping him. We said there must be some mistake, you are first among us."

"There is a mistake. He's telling you a half-truth."

"But any chance to-"

"There is no chance with him." Arun ran a hand through her hair and watched as one of the creeping vines curled up toward the glass ceiling. "Yes, the American Society of Dark Wizards are hunting for Artefacts that could bring back the Dark Lord, but the artefacts that they are looking for would bring back a half-corpse completely under their control. They do not seek to resurrect him, they seek to claim his power for themselves. They are nothing more than graverobbers. Harold Kirk is the broker, he's the man they have hired to locate the Artifacts and he's the one who's studying their use. He subcontracted me to actually retrieve the artefacts when he was unable to do it himself and now I have chosen not to aid them he is charged with finding me."

Narcissa bit her lip.

"What did you tell them Cissy? Did they mention Hogwarts?"

"They said that you had been announced the new teacher, I said you had taken the job, he asked why and I said you needed the money and a change of job after...well..." Arun grimaced, Narcissa took off her gloves and clasped her hands in front of her body, "I-" she clenched her jaw, "I felt so frightened at the possibility of him returning. Does that make me a bad person?"

"No," Arun said. "If he did return what would he come back to? Half of his followers are driven mad in Azkaban, the others are starting to believe their own subterfuge. What has become of the Death Eaters? Humiliated, exposed as cowards. What would he think of us if he came back? He would not be proud."

Narcissa sniffed, "I won't allow my family to fall Arun. The Blacks or the Malfoys. We will remain."

"Then help yourselves by helping me. Help me destroy the Grants Artifacts before the Americans get them and turn Him into their sick puppet freak."

They ate lunch in the dining room, huddled down one end of a fifty seat table. Arun told the Malfoys' everything, she detailed her adventure thus far, spoke of the battles she had to gather the artefacts, about the one she suspected was at Hogwarts and the strange case of the more corporeal hauntings that had been occurring and then stopped. She omitted Severus' part and chose headlines rather than minutia but at every opportunity sold her friends the story of the Americans wanting to take the Dark Lords power for themselves. Partly she spoke so Severus didn't have to. He drank silently, ate with little passion and only made eye contact when he was spoken to directly. She suspected he had told Lucius something; the way Lucius looked at him and dutifully refilled his wine cup whenever it started to get low was proof enough.

"The American Society has always been difficult to work with. At every opportunity, they sought to reduce our Lord's power and influence in America. They cherry picked his ideas to suit them and let blood traitors and muggles hold positions of power in their office," Lucius rolled his eyes. "I can't say I'm surprised they are now trying to steal His power."

"It's an affront," Narcissa agreed. "We didn't sacrifice so much of ourselves so his memory could be made a mockery. I don't want to follow a Las-Vegas-Voldemort." When she realised she'd said his name she winced and put her wine glass away from her. Lucius was too stunned to speak and then he started to laugh. Even Snape managed to smile.

"Well yippy ki-ahy Cissy, because if they get the artefacts that's exactly what you will be following," Lucius told her, leaning in he pointed to her wine glass and when she shook her head he poured it into his cup. Awful table manners from a man so hung up on status and power.

"So?" he asked. "You have a plan of course? You would not have been so forthcoming if you did not want our help in some way."

"Observant as usual my dear friend," Arun grinned. "I want you to tell them that Hogwarts was a dead end. Tell them I'm intending to hide the fifth artefact whilst I continue to look for the sixth. We could have some fun here Lucius, we could get the old crowd back together, take down this threat _together_." She leaned in, her eyes glinting. "Like the old days."

He pushed long white hair over his shoulder and tilted his chin as he thought about it, at first he seemed worried but after a moments thought he smiled, "Like the old days." The idea might have amused him, but he was still hesitant. "Most of the old crowd are in Azkaban and personally I would not care to join them."

"Where's your sense of adventure," Arun coxed.

"You sound like my sister," Narcissa cautioned. "Kill kill kill for me is not your style."

Snape hiccuped.

"We don't even need to take them on necessarily, we just need to keep the artefacts from them and find a way to destroy them- something like the lost sword of Gryffindor would do it."

"Why destroy?" Narcissa asked, running a hand through her long blond hair.

"If we don't they will pursue us for the rest of our lives."

"Unless we stop them." Lucius lounged in his chair, clearly enjoying the idea of a fight but not yet truly committed.

"Don't forget your teachings, Lucius, if you cut the head of the hydra two grow back."

"So drown the fucking hydra," Lucius hissed, his eyes glinting with malice.

"Alright!" Arun rolled her eyes and picked up her wine glass, "So? Will you help me?"

Lucius looked to his wife, Narcissa regarded him with a raised eyebrow as if saying 'don't look at me this is your gig.' "We have Draco to think of," Lucius told her, colouring slightly. "It's not as easy to say yes any more."

Arun had expected that response from Narcissa but not her husband, the death of the Darklord and the arrival of Baby Draco must have changed his perspectives.. "Then, at least say you will stay out of the way whilst I do what I need to do, and ensure that none of our lot sides with the Americans?"

Narcissa leaned both elbows onto the table, "That we can do," her hair fell slowly from behind her shoulder onto the table as she kept her eyes on her husband, she looked beautiful. Arun always thought her and Lucius made a fantastic couple, but times like this confirmed it. She had to admit she was jealous. "I think, if it comes to a fight you can count on my husband's support and discretion."

Severus was drunk. When they got back to school she kept a good grip on his arm and marched him through the corridors. On a Sunday there were very few people about. By the time they were outside her office, Severus was half asleep and she pushed him inside and locked them in.

The houself had been busy. Everything was exactly the way she wanted it, from the roaring fire to the comfortable bathroom and large bed with fresh sheets. There was even a plush fur rug on the floor to keep out the chill of the stone. Arun smiled as she lowered Severus onto the sofa and took off his shoes. She thought about taking him out of his overcoat, but the sheer quantity of buttons stopped her, it was like he was sewn in.

"I'm sorry-" Severus muttered.

"What for?" she asked him.

"Today was-" he hiccuped. "Bad. I liked your-" he cast around for the word. "Ball."

"Sev, you're drunk."

"I'm not," he leaned forward. "Do you think I'm like my father?"

"No."

"I do," he sat back, his unfocused eyes found the fire and he sat looking at it, mesmerised for a long while. "I do," he muttered again.

"Why?"

"I get angry. I get angry and it blinds me and.. And…" he ran a hand down his face. "I'm the worst part of my parents. Snivellus," he mocked himself. "Snivellus Snape. Sad little boy. Coward. The last thing my father said was that I looked like a faggot and had no shame. I just stood aside and let him, just let him for my whole life. Snivellus."

"When you wake up tomorrow you will be glad you don't remember what you're saying to me."

Snape gave her a lopsided smile, "Hi," he told her and he reached out his hand. She came and sat on the floor by his knees and rested her arm across his lap. "I don't deserve you," he told her. "I don't. You should be with somebody who...just….who…" he waved a hand, like he was giving her something, "All of it…." he paused, "you know?"

"I have enough."

He ran his hand over her head like he was petting a dog. "Where are we?"

Arun sighed and got up, she kissed Severus then took his hand and led him to the bedroom. It was only six in the afternoon but she put him into her bed, telling him he was honoured to be the first one to sleep in it. She tried to get him to unbutton his top, but his fingers were so uncoordinated so she sat doing them for him. It took a long time, and she had to do the sleeves too, but once he was out of it he fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

The next morning Snape woke up with an awful headache. He grumbled like a bear and Arun had to manhandle him into the bathroom and force him to try out her new shower. Whilst he was in there, she made the bed, floated a pot of coffee over the burner for her caldron and brushed out his clothes. She waved her hand across them a few times, using a cleaning spell to freshen them up, it wasn't as good as the laundry, and Arun wasn't convinced he'd ever given his clothes to somebody to wash. He emerged sometime later with a long face and a towel wrapped around his head, "I can't remember coming back to Hogwarts."

"Lucius had to help you down the stairs from his front door. You vomited on his lawn. It's not like you to show so much emotion in front of people Sev, what did you tell him?"

"I told him the truth, and he told me to drink."

"And did it help?"

Severus shrugged. "I'm going to be late."

"Coffee," she held out a cup for him, "You're going to need it, and this," she held out a potion of her own design. "It's a mint and merlap infusion. It'll settle your stomach but be careful you don't burp."

"Why"

"It'll-" she grimace. "Let's just say it'll burn."

Severus downed the coffee, and then the infusion, she helped him with his buttons and when he was caged back into his robe he swept from the room without a thank you or goodbye.


	14. Chapter 14

The Room of Requirement

Teaching was time-consuming. Equally, she had not been prepared for how quickly time would pass as she focused on her teaching. For a number of weeks, the dungeons had been quiet, so much so that the Slytherins moved back to their common room and Snape to his lodgings. Her own classroom was full of students and a growing menagerie of magical creatures (non-venomous), which often escaped. Leading to students playing, 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' (so named after their course textbook) there was even a club. Severus hated the fact that the students seemed to enjoy spending time learning from her. He was so annoyed with her popularity that he'd gone through a period of blanking her. She had prodded and poked him, spoken to him about mundane rubbish and laughed at him until his resolve to despise her melted.

Of news about the Grants Artefacts, there was very little. Amber had sent some reading material regarding cursed objects and power groupings. Lucius wrote to say that the Americans had asked to meet him in January to discuss Gringotts. She continued to do her own research into how to destroy the Artefacts but everything she read suggested that she would not be strong enough. Every moment she had alone was spent training.

On the first day of the Christmas holidays Arun floated cross-legged in the room of requirement, her new training ground, surrounded by a ball of fire. Working magic without a wand required immense concentration and self-control. The benefit of a wand was that it tempered and focused magic, it bended the force to a will but it also reduced it. That's why the most powerful wands were also the most hard-won and the most difficult to control. Arun had her arms as pointers and her fingers to direct but she was likely to cause major damage if she wasn't careful. She moved her hands, like a tai chi master and the fire stopped spinning around her, protecting her, and it flowed like a serpent into the air. She moved it around the room and then directed it towards an empty suit of bewitched armour which was running around with a shield. The fire serpent crashed into him, melting him into a blob.

Arun bewitched a second suit, this time giving it the purpose to attack her. It charged, and she repelled quickly with a volley of curses. The suit dodged, lept into the air with its sword up. She froze it, then blasted it with a cutting curse that shattered it into a cloud of fine dust.

Somebody started to clap.

Arun spun round, "Sev!" she exclaimed.

"If you wanted to duel-" he attacked. She hardly had time to deflect him before a second flick of his wand sent her shooting across the room. She rolled, righted herself and cast an air shield. Severus watched her with his eyes narrowed. He started to mutter under his breath, she felt the shield breaking and in response, she shot a hot blast of fire across the room. Severus cut it in half and was about to attack again when Arun blasted him a second time, he stumbled, a third time and he was hanging in the air. He used his wand like a whip and she felt the skin rip across her arm. She dropped him and disappeared.

Severus picked himself up off the floor, brushed his hair from his face and cast around, "What kind of magic is this?" he hissed. "Reveal yourself."

Arun laughed, Severus spun and sent a volley of attacks which exploded around her and into her and in her surprise and eagerness to block she couldn't remain hidden. "Fight like the Death Eater you are, Sev!" Arun coaxed. "Don't hold back."

"Crucio," Snape roared.

Arun felt the torture curse smack into her like a train at speed. This was what she wanted to train against but Merlin's beard it was horrid. She was being ripped her apart like a thousand papercuts dipped in lemon juice. She collapsed to her knees. Her hands dug into the ground, but Snape didn't let up. She turned her head to him and saw his dark eyes shine, the wetness of his lips and the catch of eager breath in the back of his throat. She saw all the pain he kept bottled up pouring out of him into her and even though she was in the worst agony imaginable she forced herself to channel it. First into her fist, then into a ball in front of her. Severus' eagerness turned to horror as he saw what she was doing, and as his resolve weakened, her power grew. And soon she was floating above him holding a green ball of sparkling light above her, a ball of pain and anger and sorrow, and she chucked it. Not at Severus, she didn't want to kill him, but at the floor between them. The explosion was enormous. It gouged a crater into the floor and caved in the ceiling. Snape swore and immobilized rocks as they fell around him and Arun cast a protective bubble which made the masonry bounce off. When the dust settled they looked at each other in horror and ran from the room as fast as they could. As they ran they heard Filch, "what's' wrong Mrs Norris, what are those evil students up to now?"

"What was that?" Arundel rounded on Snape when they got back to her rooms. "What were you thinking?"

"I-" Snape's cheeks burned. "I didn't mean-"

Arun grabbed him and pushed him away from her, "You didn't mean to what?" she shouted. "Enjoy it?"

Severus shook his head, his body turned away from her, "I didn't-" he started, his mouth worked a few times and he set his teeth and gave a tortured cry. "I don't!"

Arun blinked in shock, she'd never seen him so angry he couldn't make sense any longer. He strode up to her, towering over her, his face contorted into a furious mask.

"You dare to invite me to attack you and then you get angry when I do as you request. What's wrong with _you_ Arun?" he tried to turn it back on her. "I should be asking you, do you enjoy it when I hurt you? Do you? Are you sick in the head like my fucking mother? Are you Arun? Is that what's going on here? Are you just a sadist who likes being treated like shit? Do you want me to beat you too, do you want me to make you feel worthless? Some people like that you know; my father taught me that."

Arun blinked. This wasn't about her any more, in a way, it never had been.

"You pretend to be so warm but you're cold," he sneered and poked her shoulder, "You're a corpse Arun. You don't care about anybody. Even in bed your a corpse. If I have to curse you to help you orgasm so be it. What are you so frightened of?"

Severus ran a hand across his mouth and took a few steps back, he was shaking, he realised what he had said and he held out a hand as if to tell her to wait. "What am I thinking," he muttered, struggling to regain composure. Arun felt like she had been slapped. What he'd said to her was more painful than the torture curse, he'd tapped into her biggest insecurity. She stood, sickened, watching as he stumbled away from her.

"I think you need to leave," she told him, every bit as cold as she stood accused.

Severus didn't argue, but as he left she saw he was crying.

Two days later Arundel's anger had not subsided. She was so miserable that it affected everything she did, and yet her pride was dented and she didn't feel like talking to her sister or Narcissa or any other friend because to do so would be to admit her own failings. So she simmered in anger on her own hating everything Severus had said to her. Hating it all the more because she couldn't shake the knowledge that he was right. She was a cold fish, self-absorbed in her own importance and unable to allow herself to lose an inch of self-control. Unable to even find pleasure in her own body's sensations because it would mean trusting somebody else to make her feel good. What was she frightened of?

She slept the nights with a Draft of Deathly Slumber to aid her, and in the mornings woke up feeling like she had done ten rounds with a troll. Twelve days before Christmas she found an invite on her desk in her study and she settled into her chair, waved her fire into existence and with a flick of her finger through the air the kettle started to boil. She slit the envelope open with a paper knife and found an invitation.

"Professor Dumbledore proudly invites you to a Yule Social with teachers pre drinks and dinner followed by the Yule Ball in the Great Hall. There will be further drinks in the potions chamber after, along with an assortment of delightful concoctions provided by our very own potions master." The invite went on to talk about dress codes. Arun chucked it onto the fire. A few hours later the letter arrived again, this time by owl, and a few hours after that Arun found three letters waiting for her RSVP.

She said yes, it wasn't like she had much choice.

The days that followed formed a practiced routine, get up, go for a run, meditate to improve focus, three hours of training, lunch, research and reading in the library for three hours, lesson planning for two, tea, a half hour to read the newspaper, two hours more training and then reading until bed. It started to snow. She patrolled Hogsmeade to stop students from getting too close to each other. She avoided Snape, and all the other teachers apart from Hagrid, and actually started to wish that the Americans would turn up so she could attack them because at least she would be doing something worthwhile.

After a particularly cold day out she got back to her office to find the fire embers had formed the face of Narcissa, "Ah, there you are."

"Hi," Arun grumbled.

"Oh, darling you sound awful."

Arun was about to say she was fine but her voice caught in the back of her throat and she started to cry. She despised herself for it at once.

"Arun, get over to us at once," Narcissa commanded.

"I can't Cissy, I have wor-"

"No, you don't. You have flu powder on your mantelpiece, you always do, so use it."

Arun hesitated, sniffing back her own self-loathing.

"Don't hesitate, act."

Arun pinched the bridge of her nose and then did as she was asked. The fire hissed green, she stepped inside and shouted Malfoy Manor over the roar of the green flames.

"Good," Narcissa hugged her tightly.

"I suppose Severus has been in contact?"

"Yes," Narcissa saw no reason to lie about it, "He told us he was horrid to you. He said he'd never felt so ashamed."

"I don't care if he feels like he wants to jump off a cliff, he said things that were true, and he said them to hurt me."

Narcissa took Arun's hand and half dragged her into the living room where Lucius looked up from the Daily Profit with surprise. "Oh," he said, looked at his wife and then back to Arun. "Oh," he said again and looked across the room to Snape.

Arun spun on her heal to leave. Narcissa ran and blocked the door. Arun raised a hand. Lucius drew his wand. Snape held his breath. Arun spread her fingers, took a deep breath and laugh in spite. "I should have seen this coming."

"You are both profoundly miserable people and I am not going to let you sabotage each other because you're wallowing in your own self pity." Narcissa snapped at them. "I don't want my friends bickering and I certainly don't want them caterwauling about how stupid they have been and doing nothing to sort it out-" that was aimed at Snape. "So Lucius and I will lock you into this room until you either kill each other or come out as friends. Do I make myself clear?"

Arun considered blasting her _friend_ aside and going back to Hogwarts, but then she would lose more than one person she cared about today. Lucius still had his wand out. Snape was studying the cover of the book he was reading.

"Do I make myself clear?" Narcissa said again.

"Yes," Arun muttered.

"Severus?"

"Yes," Snape's voice was but a whisper.

"Good." Narcissa opened the door and motioned for Lucius to leave the room. Arun watched the door close and she felt the air change as Narcissa warded her in.

The door closing had a strange effect on Arundel. She felt her heart start to race, her palms grew sweaty and she felt a deep unease in her stomach. She moved over to Lucius' sofa and picked up his copy of the Daily Proffit and then she sat in his seat and opened it. Not once looking at Severus. He put his book down and watched her, his lower jaw had a smattering of stubble, his hair was more lank than usual and it was clear he hadn't slept. _Good._ She thought, he should feel bad. She watched from the corner of his eye as he tried to get the courage to speak to her.

"I said things I didn't mean-"

Arun held up her hand to make him stop talking. She let the Daily Profit slump over and put it onto a side table so she could regard him. "Don't patronise me."

Snape clenched his jaw, a momentary flash of anger was mastered in a moment. Did he think she would accept it, let him off because she _worried_ about him? No.

"You meant every word you said, Severus, though you may regret saying them."

"I didn't-"

"Shut up," Arun snapped, unable to keep her temper under control. "You've said enough already. Shut up and listen."

Snape hung his head, his cheeks were burning with shame and he couldn't make her eye. He did as he was told.

"You are not your father. If you see that I'm not ok talk to me about it, don't keep silent until you can use it as ammunition to make me feel as bad as you. Everything you did to me that night. Everything. Was self-harm. But I'm hurt Sev, I'm hurt more by what you said that by the curse that came before because you did it on purpose. You did it to make me feel like you."

Severus' eyes shone like coals, she couldn't read him as she studied him, and she knew the immense effort he was going to keep her out of his mind.

"So?" Arun asked. "What have you to say for yourself?"

"I think i'll tie myself in a knot answering that."

"Because you will insult me again?"

"Most probably."

"Then say what you have to say."

"You are right."

Arun waited, but that was it. He said three words and they muted her. She waited, but so did he and his patience outlasted hers.

"I'm right," she echoed. "Is that it?"

"Yes."

She did feel insulted. She picked up the paper again, she didn't know what else to say to him and she was still sick with anxiety.

"What happens now?" Severus asked.

"I don't know."

"Do you still want to be-" he left the words hanging. He didn't seem to know how to finish his sentence. Arun considered leaving him without an answer but her mouth appeared to have a mind of its own.

"Do _you_ want to? You said I was cold. That I was shit in bed. That I was frightened of my own body. You called me a corpse."

Severus turned pale as his own words were reflected back at him. "I know what I said," he told her. "I said it to hurt you. I wish I knew why you were so terrified of being touched, I just want to make you feel good. I try and tell myself it's not what I'm doing that repulses you, but part of me believes it is."

Arun worried the corner of the newspaper, "It's like-" she stopped talking, her own shame took away her tongue. She cleared her throat and ran a hand through her hair. "You want to make me feel good, you want to take time, but I start to watch myself, I over think what my bodies doing and then it doesn't respond how I want it to and then I feel like a twat. I'm lying there trying to be in a world of pleasure and all I can think is, 'everybody would be a lot happier if we just skipped this part.' and so I skip it, and you do what you need to do and then your needs satisfied and we can go back to talking about potions and how annoying your students are and life goes on."

Severus blinked, "Really?" he asked.

"Yes." It felt good to use his own strategy against him.

"Why didn't you say something sooner? We could have experimented," as soon as he said it she felt like a fool. Why hadn't she just _said something_?

Snape started to laugh.

"What?"

"Oh Arun," he ran a hand down his face. She hung her head and closed her eyes. "All this time?"

"Always."

"I like that, it's grammatically incorrect but it's fitting," he said about her response and he got up, held out his hands to her and drew her into a warm embrace. She closed her eyes, wishing that it would never stop.


	15. Chapter 15

Antidotes and dancing.

"The Dark lord has a snake called Nagini," Arun told Severus over dinner in the three broomsticks. "He found her in Albania."

"How do you know that?" Severus asked, a piece of chicken poised on his fork hovered in front of his mouth, momentarily forgotten.

"Nagini has a potent venom that stops blood from clotting. She bit me once, look," Arun pulled her sleeve up and showed Severus two puncture marks on her arm. Snape leaned in to study them, dropping his chicken back on the plate.

"I didn't know…" he started, he looked a little pale. "He is dead, isn't he Arun?"

"I don't know, but the snake isn't."

"Where's the snake?"

"Albania still I imagine, though she may still be in England."

He finally put the chicken in his mouth and chewed slowly. Arun had once watched Tobias eat a chicken leg, there was grease all over his chin and he chewed with his mouth open. Severus' table manners were, thankfully, inherited from his mother. "What kind of snake?"

"She's huge, body as thick as a man's thigh. She's intelligent too, the conversations He had with her were detailed, he listened to her council above his closest advisors."

"A snake?"

Arun nodded. "A snake with a potent venom." she leaned in, "I'm immune though."

Snape rolled his eyes and started to cut up a potato, "really?"

"On His orders, I made him immune. He was worried she would bite him and he would bleed to death. I had to milk her venom and I created both an antidote and also a potion to immunize for good."

Now Severus was listening.

"I started with a hognose- a snake with a mild venom, and I perfected the potions. Then I looked at animals with a similar anticoagulant profile and I tested the formula with the different venom, it worked, and so I used Nagini's. I took it to Him and he told her to attack, knowing that I would have tested it on myself before. She bit me on my arm, and though I was bleeding it was not unnatural. My blood clotting formula was very very good. A few drops on the wound site and it closed in seconds. If it's a bad bite Episkey spell variants work to aid the recovery."

"Can you still make it?"

Arun nodded, "I'll show you if you want?"

"I'd be honoured."

"It can be a birthday present."

Snape blinked. He'd forgotten that his birthday was just a few weeks away. "I hate this time of year," he muttered. "Everything gets so fake." His eyes turned up to the decorations in the Three Broomsticks. Huge fern trees were lit with floating candles and baubles that looked like magic balls. Some of the people in the pub were wearing festive jumpers. Severus was not.

"You're such a Scrooge," she giggled. "Bah humbug I am determined to hate everything."

Severus raised an eyebrow and then went back to his meal, "Are you going to the Yule Ball?" he asked as he pressed a carrot onto his fork along with half a brussel sprout.

"I was invited."

"I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to go."

Arun sat back in her seat and studied the last centimetre of Butterbeer in her glass. She'd finished her own food a while ago, she ate quickly like it was a race but Severus took his time the way only children do when they have never had to compete with their older, bigger, siblings to get the best food. "Are you going or are you just doing the potions thing after?"

"I'm head of Slytherin house," he said, as if it were answer enough.

"Maybe I'll see you there then, _sir_."

Severus didn't seem to know how to respond to that, he actually looked a bit creeped out by the idea of Arun pretending to be a student. She supposed that was a good thing. "Will you dance with me?"

His lip curled, "I do not dance."

"Not even in private?"

"No."

"So who teaches your students?"

"I get a tutor for them. Private instruction."

Arun snorted a laugh. "And you will stand in the ball watching with your arms crossed and a frown on your face, breaking up students who are getting too amorous and snapping at anybody who tells you to 'loosen up'"

"That's exactly what I intend to do. I'll give out some week-long detentions too because I have a stack of caldrons that need cleaning," he leaned in closer to her. "And then I'll serve up potions that make stupid children levitate a few feet off the ground or blow blue spit bubbles and then I'll get the hell out of that depressing nightmare."

"Quit."

"Quit?" he echoed.

"You don't like teaching, you don't like the students, you don't like the work. Quit."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

Severus tilted his head up and his jaw clenched. Arun saw what he was doing, trying to avoid giving her an answer that she would not like.

"Lily?" she asked.

Snape ran a hand through his hair and nodded.

"But the Dark Lord asked you to take up the job?"

"Yes, and now I must stay because of her and because of a promise I made."

"To whom? Him or Dumbledore?"

"Both."

Arun pouted and sat back with her arms crossed.

"Don't do that, you know I work here for a reason. You do too and I've heard so many different versions of your true intentions that I can only guess at which one is real."

The students were all talking excitedly about the Yule celebrations. It was all they wanted to talk about in Aruns Creature Club's (which were continuing through the holidays). The students sat training Nifflers and cleaning out the Squadumps talking about their partners, their outfits, the music and the food. They speculated who would ask who and what their responses might be. They paired teachers up too, Arun caught one group talking about McGonagall and Dumbledore, but another student speculated that Flitwick might be more her type. That produced quite an amusing amount of speculation which Arun put a, somewhat delayed, end to with a flick of her hand to take away their voices.

"What about you?" Griffin asked. "Will you go with Professor Snape?"

"I think he'll be a little too busy keeping an eye on his Students," Arun said, but the last thing she wanted was a rumour. "What makes you think I would go with him?"

"You like him."

Arun frowned, "Like?" she asked. "What on earth do you mean?"

"He doesn't have many friends does he, Professor?"

"He's well respected."

"Respect isn't liked."

"Griffin," Arun pinched the bridge of her nose. "Your ability to talk to me about anything other than your work is astounding and your obsession with the nature of my relationship with Snape must end."

She went a little red, "Yes, professor. But-"

"Your Squadump is escaping."

Arun swept away from her table, but as soon as she walked away Griffin started to whisper to a friend. A quick curse and she was able to hear what was being said, but the content of it was more surprising than she expected.

"She suspects him too. She must do. Think about it, the vaults have been silent for weeks now, Rab. She suspects. She thinks it's an Artifact, something cursed, and I'm sure she's staying close to him because he's a _death eater._ He's after whatever is down there."

Her friend, Rab, a Gryffindor, didn't look convinced. "I asked my dad about her. He said she was undeclared in the last war. That the ministry and You-know-who's supporters both contracted her. Somebody like that could be working with Snape."

"That's why Dumbledore would have given her the job. Because somebody like that would be trusted by somebody like Snape!"

Arun's attention was taken away by a rogue Niffler but for the rest of the lesson, she fretted about Griffin and her friends. They were children, snooping around and likely to cause issues for her in the long run, but at least they weren't going to go around spreading amorous rumours.

Hagrid had decorated his beard with baubles and somebody, possibly himself, had kitted him a huge green jumper with red cuffs. Arun wore a black dress with long sleeves which went past her hands to her fingers. She looked amazing, and the sideways glances from the male teachers only proved a fact she already knew. Only Severus didn't pay her any attention, not publicly at least. He'd chosen the dress for her, and he'd buttoned her up in it after they had spent the morning together. He had said she was exquisite. Even now she blushed and pretended it was the wine.

There were not that many students left at Hogwarts over the winter holidays. Only around a hundred from each house. Instead of sitting scattered across the four tables Dumbledore had created a horseshoe and the students mingled together. Above them, the enchanted ceiling snowed and the thousands of candles flickered like lighthouse beacons in the blizzard. Arun had turkey, stuffing, sprouts and bread sauce, roast parsnips and carrots, peas and swede mash. Christmas cake, cheese and crackers. By her third glass of red, she felt like she'd taken a sleeping draft, but they still had the dance to look forward to.

"How are you settling in Miss Granville?" Dumbledore asked.

She had slumped in her seat, trying to let her food settle down into her stomach, and she was not as guarded as usual. "Fine, I wasn't expecting it to be such hard work. Even three days a week is exhausting."

A number of teachers listening to her smirked.

"I thought I'd come in and just, well, teach. I didn't expect the planning, the preparation, the marking, the parent owls, the crying students and the continuous vigilance I'd need to do this."

"It seems you are doing wonderfully though. Professor Snape burns his parent owls, I use them as a darts board. Have you heard of the muggle game darts?"

"No."

"Very sharp pieces of metal which you throw," he mimicked the motion. "Wonderfully soothing."

"Are you saying I shouldn't reply?"

"Do as you see fit, just know that Hogwarts is not in the business of keeping students closeted from the realities of our world."

"Forewarned is forearmed," Arun muttered and picked up her glass again.

"Exactly professor. How are we to combat the darkest forces of this world if we are content to wallow in our own ignorant bliss?"

That seemed a little pointed, but Arun was too sedated to overthink his words. Severus looked across her to the headmaster, his eyes narrowed.

"It's time, is it not, headmaster?"

"Oh? Yes, I do believe it is Severus," Dumbledore stood up to address the crowd of students below. Whilst he spoke Snape kicked Arun under the table.

"Stop drinking," he told her. "You're not paying attention."

"To what?" Arun asked. "Dumbledore's dumb double-entendres?" she sniggered at her alliteration. Severus didn't. "Fine," she sighed and sat up a little straighter. "I'm paying attention."

"Somebody went into my personal cupboard and took the ingredients to make the death suspension draft."

Arun's head snapped around, her lips formed the shape of a question but then a sobering thought crossed her mind and she looked down at the group of students, where were Griffin, Rab and the younger one, Jacob?

"It's lethal if it's not brewed properly. Why would somebody even contemplate being so foolish as to make it? More to the point, what would they use it for?"

Arundel continued to hunt the room but she couldn't see the trio in the hall, "What was the time frame between the first attack in the dungeons and the second one?"

"About a month, why?"

"How long's it been since you were attacked?"

"Again, a month," Snape spoke slowly, dwelling on her words. "This is the first time I have had items stolen."

Arun ran a hand over the back of her neck as she racked her brains to work out what three children could want a Death Suspension Draft. "Tell me about the draft, my heads too full to be objective."

Severus leaned forward so they could whisper. "The death suspension draft holds a person in a balance between life and death, all functions paused. Those who have taken the draft report that they are able to leave their bodies and travel as a ghost, that they have seen dead relatives and communicated with spirits, they say they have seen into the spirit world. However, many more don't come back and those who do are reported to be tainted from the experience, they spend the rest of their life like they are haunted. I saw a report from the twenties, of Jack Kunnings the serial killer, who was captured four years after his killing spree began, he went to Azkaban but the Dementors wouldn't go near him. There are reports that the people who have taken the Draft are found wandering in the full moon, and that they are inexplicably drawn to graveyards."

"Ghosting," Arun muttered. "That's what it's called."

"I've heard that too."

"Why would somebody want to…" she trailed off, what was she missing.

A bell started to toll. Arun looked up, not comprehending what was happening, but Severus went very pale. Dumbledore broke off his speech and turned to look at Snape, the shock on his face turned Arundel cold. Before she could ask, Sev was on his feet and striding down out of the hall. Arun ran after him, uncaring how many teachers and students saw her go. He did not go to the vaults, he made his way up to the hospital wing on the first floor.

"What's happened?" he asked as he strode into the room. Filch was standing in the corner, Griffin and Jacob cowered when they saw Snape. On the bed Rab's skin looked pale and his dark hair had turned from black to white.

"Merlin's Beard," Arun muttered as she caught up with him.

"They've just brought him in professor." Madam Pomfrey told Snape. "They say they found him like this, I… I don't think he's with us any longer."

Snape looked over his shoulder, his eyes glinted and with a sneer he said, "I find it very hard to believe that they just 'found' him." he walked over to the bed and pulled back Rab's eyelid. His eye was misted over, the pupil no longer distinguishable, but when Snape blew on his open eye Rab's lid fluttered and closed. "He's not dead,"

Madam Pomfrey rushed to his side, "How do you know? He has no pulse and he isn't breathing."

Arun didn't listen to them any more, she turned and motioned for Griffin and Jacob to follow her. "Quickly now," she said. "Take me to the place you 'found' him."

Griffin wanted to talk but Arun didn't give her a chance to until they were standing at the entrance to the vaults. "So?" she asked.

"Are we going to get expelled?"

"That depends on your actions tonight miss Griffin." Arun told her. "Professor Snape would see you gone purely for breaking into his personal stores, so you best have a good reason for doing it."

"We…" Griffin started.

"We don't know what you are talking about," Jacob cut across. Arun studied him, she didn't have to ask anything else, when she locked eyes with him she could see exactly what happened.

She saw them huddling in a broom cupboard brewing the potion, with Griffin taking the lead, one of the restricted section books open on the ground next to a small fire ring and caldron. Griffin said, "Crush the ingredients rather than chop them and let's simmer it slower that way it will be better."

Arun wanted to shout at her, the foolish girl.

"Once I'm under what happens?"

"You have to get past the hauntings in the vault. You have to work out what the artefact is, and then you need to come back to us and tell us. The artefact can't hurt you if you're a ghost."

"I still don't see why we couldn't ask Sir Nick or one of the other ghosts to help us," Jacob muttered as he stirred.

"They won't come down here, not since…." A noise startled them. All three went quiet.

The memory faded, a new one replaced it, this time she saw through Jacobs' eyes how Griffin fed the potion to Rab. "the book says it's gentle, like falling asleep. It says…"

But Rab flopped onto his side and started to convulse, he let out a piercing scream and then stopped moving. Freya Griffin and Jacob clutched each other as they watched their friend, out of his mouth a small white light appeared, shimmered in the air and then shot away from them at speed. Freya started to swear and she thumbed back through the book whilst Jacob jibbered.

Arun blinked, she exited his memories and her mouth made a hard line. "If he's trying to get back to his body he'll come here to find it, he's not about to go wandering, ghosts are forgetful of corporeal things. Jacob go and tell Professor Snape to bring the body back down here."

Jacob nodded and ran, Arun stopped Griffin from leaving too. "He did this to himself, you understand? He'd heard you talking about Ghosting and he thought it would be fun to play tricks. If he wakes up he'll never be the same anyway so I doubt he'll mind being expelled."

Freya started to cry.

"There's no point sobbing about it now Freya, you brewed a precise potion too strong and you didn't research it well enough. You're in way over your head but you are a promising witch. Don't throw away a chance to make it right by being the noble one, owning up and having all your chances taken from you."

"Why are you helping me?" Freya sobbed.

"I honestly don't know."

Honesty perhaps, wasn't the best option, she cried more, and when Snape and Dumbledore appeared with the levitating body of Rab to place back into position Dumbledore took the children to his office. Arun knew he would divine everything Arun had said to Freya. She felt sick at what he would think of her, but she told herself that she didn't much care for his regard. She was more concerned with Rab. They placed his body down and then Arun and Snape sat either side of it, staring into the darkness of the unlit corridor leading down to the vaults.

"The foolishness of children never ceases to astound me," Severus muttered, his face shrouded in gloom.

"We were children once."

"And we were fools too."

"I wasn't," Arun told him with mock surety.

"What was school like for you?" Severus asked. He seemed genuinely interested, even though there was only a few years difference, and they had been in the same house.

Arun shook her head, "Honestly?"

"Yes, honestly. We pretend our childhood doesn't shape us, but it does."

"My childhood was very odd," Arun told him. "My mother is a Riddle, the only daughter ending a long line of Riddles. A distant relation to our very own dark lord. When she was at school she helped him set up the first iteration of his following, she recruited Avery and Lestrange and she travelled with him when he was recruiting abroad. Then she started to write anthroposophical stuff studying bloodlines, she married my father who was not...not a follower, but, not…." she shrugged. "He was just motivated by his own things and he loved learning. A historian and a scholar with a fascination for old magic. The Dark Lord found him fascinating in turn, and was good enough to leave him alone. I suppose the fact that he was one of the sacred twenty-eight helped. I grew up in Egypt, Albania, Moscow and Syria. We were always travelling. My mother spewed her vitriol into pages and pages of books that were snapped up by blood supremacist sympathisers. My sister hates my mother, my own relationship with her is fine as long as we don't get into politics. I grew up navigating people who had fundamental differences in their morals and simply no time for children." She looked down into the gloom of the vault corridor, but she was remembering the earliest years of her childhood, before Hogwarts. "I remember sitting on Uncle Tom's knee talking to him in Parseltongue, does that seem strange? Nobody even calls him Tom any more, it would be unthinkable."

Severus had gone very quiet, she wondered if it was jealousy or fear or perhaps sympathy he felt for her. Whatever it was she decided she didn't want to find out, and so she moved the story on. "As I got older my parents travelled apart, my father spent a lot of time in the middle east and Africa and my mother spent time in Europe. The ministry banned her books and my sister started Hogwarts, it was very hard for her there because of it. She was a Ravenclaw, she grew to detest my mother, and only spoke to father whose views were more temperate. She got the top grades in all her subjects and then followed him into his line of work."

"What are your views?" Severus asked. "I've always wondered; they seem to change depending on who you are with."

"What's interesting," Arun told Severus, pressing ahead like he had never asked the question, "Is that my mothers writing over the decade has argued for mixing mudblood and pure blood to avoid inbreeding, but she isn't advocating us sleeping with muggles. She's even started to look at muggle science, recessive and dominant genes and studies done by muggles into dog breeding." Arun paused. "My mother doesn't really see people as anything other than interesting experiments, a trait she shares with my distant relation."

"And what about you?" Severus asked again.

"I see people not blood. I see good in both sides but I think both sides are profoundly hypocritical. What my uncle fails to grasp is the fact that should he be successful his morals and ideals will become greyed as soon as he is responsible for the whole of the wizarding world. He will realise that to be powerful he must harnice all of the resources at his disposal, including mudbloods and muggles and in doing so he must compromise himself and become just another politician swamped in bureaucracy and financial constraint. Therefore he destroys himself. The Ministry is already at that point, and by aiding my uncle in his struggle, I force them to review their own grey practices and to consider what moral and just society should look like. I see myself as having a very important function in this war. I stop people from feeling complacency is justified. I create monsters so I can create angels."

"So you aid the Dark Lord to further the morality of Society?" Severus laughed. "That's the biggest crock of shit you've ever said."

Arun started to laugh and was about to start telling Severus about her time at Hogwarts as a child when Rab took a sharp and painful intake of breath. He moved like a man possessed, and moved around in his body like it was a screwed up jumper. He turned to face them and in a rattling breath, he began to whisper.

 _"And on the seventh day of the seventh_ month _, the horseman shall ride again and the world will be cracked asunder_."

Three times he repeated it, before he collapsed down, breathing slowly and said no more.

On Christmas day Rab was taken to St Mungo's Hospital, Severus and Arun were called to Dumbledore's office and here they sat like naughty school children looking up at the paintings of all those headmasters who came before as they waited for him. Just as they looked up the ancient portraits looked down at them, amused and curious and indignant.

"Did you know an anagram for Albus Dumbledore is 'male bods rule bud'" Arun sniggered. One of the paintings tutted. Severus gave her a long hard look down his hooked nose and said nothing.

"Oh, don't be like that...it is funny."

Voices came closer, Arun turned in her seat and heard McGonagle moaning, "Headmaster, don't you think it's prudent to send her away?"

"Come now Minvera, this is hardly the time for knee-jerk reactions to imagined threats."

"Hardly imagined when-" Minerva McGonagall stopped talking.

"Ah Miss Granville, Severus, thank you for waiting. Most good of you to come. Minerva, would you stay?"

Minerva looked down her nose at Arun and hovered by the stairs. Dumbledore moved to his office chair and sat down with a sigh, slapping his hands down on the chair sides. "You will be relieved to know that Rab is in the safe care of the St Mungo's team, surrounded by his family. As Miss Griffin was helpful enough to explain what he foolishly tried to do his family have accepted it as an accident and are not concerned with further complaints. They have offered to compensate for the loss of your personal stores Severus." Dumbledore's gaze settled on Arundel. "Quick thinking on your part to move him back to the Vaults, without his body returned it is doubtful he would have found his way back."

"Has he spoken since?" Arun asked.

"Very little I'm afraid."

Arun locked eyes with Dumbledore, and saw a flash of a hospital bed, a child surrounded by family and a whispered word, "the horseshoe." Dumbledore didn't force her out, he was showing her his memory on purpose.

 _Are you telling me to find it or are you telling me to leave it be?_ Arun asked.

Dumbledore made a show of searching for something in his draws as he answered _What you choose to do is your choice, miss Granville. I haven't the faintest notion about which you speak. But should you be considering action, you will find there are more than just cursed objects in the vaults. Some forgotten things are surprisingly helpful in tackling the forces of darkness._

"It's doubtful that he will be well enough to attend for a long while, perhaps even the next year. Griffin and Jacob however, supported him down this path, and though they are undoubtedly blameless they must learn that to support a fool is to be foolish, and so they have been given a number of detentions. Professor Snape and Miss Granville will host them, Griffin will, of course, assist professor Snape in his administrations of the Potions rooms and Jacob will be allocated to Miss Granville, who will begin cataloguing the vault items in sixteen B. A week should do it don't you think?"

"As you wish professor," Snape muttered, clearly put out that his holiday was now going to be spent caretaking a student. Arun, however, felt like she had been given a Christmas present.

"I do believe that's all," Dumbledore smiled, "Do have a good Christmas. Minerva, would you sit with me for a while, I need your help with my crossword."


	16. Chapter 16

New year's eve

"I've spent days clearing out that bloody vault and I've found nothing remotely cursed or curse breaking. It's a joke," Arun complained to her sister, who was using the portrait as a window. Next to her Severus was picking at the dirt under his nail with the corner of some post that had arrived for him a few hours ago. They sat on her desk in her study, facing the painting of Arun's sister, which hung above a roaring fire.

"I thought the Headmaster was giving me a clue, but it seems he just wants me to know that there's nothing down there. I even snooped into the other vaults and nope," she threw her hands up in frustration. "Nothing."

"You think he's hiding it elsewhere?"

"Yes. I do think that. I also think it's still on the school grounds somewhere. The whole buildings haunted though."

"Somewhere away from students then?"

"I just want to know what Dumbledore's doing, I want to know if he's trying to help me, and if he is, why he won't just come out and say it!"

"He doesn't trust you sis. Why should he?"

Next to her, Snape opened the post, bored with a conversation he'd had time and time again.

"Any updates on destroying them?"

"Actually yes. I saw a reference to the Oren Spike. It's a cursed object in its own right, wielding it apparently takes some sort of toll, but the spike is said to be known as the curse breaker."

"How old are we talking?"

"Mayan."

"Where is it now?"

"Apparently in the department of mysteries in the Ministry of Magic."

"Any chance you can get it out on loan for study?" Arun laughed but her sister shook her head.

"You're the vault cracker kid."Amber paused and looked over her shoulder then came closer to the picture. "There's been rumours. Werewolves are going to England. Some of them are- known- child eaters."

Severus looked up and studied Amber, but he didn't say anything. Arundel felt him tense up next to her.

Arun shrugged, "You think they are working with the Americans?" she asked, hoping that her own nervousness wasn't showing. Fenrir's business was his own and she'd already tipped off the Centaurs so she didn't feel she had to do anything else. Those Centaurs would have spoken to Dumbledore maybe he moved the Artefact after but she had no proof that it was so and to be quite honest, she didn't intend to get in Fenrir's way if he did come to Hogwarts.

"Maybe, or maybe they're just pissed off that the Dark Lord didn't give them what they were promised," Amber pulled the corner of her mouth down and shrugged up her shoulders.

"Do you have any idea why they are coming to England?" Severus asked. "I assume you have notified the Ministry?"

"I have notified them," Amber told him, her voice was not so kind when she was addressing him. "And what is it that the werewolves always want? New recruits. So I expect they will be making their way to the school," She ran her lips through her teeth and looked away from them for a moment. "I have to go, I'm halfway through a research paper and Dad's coming to see me later."

"Let us know if you find anything else," Arun told her.

"Shall do. Happy New Year. Good to see you again Sniv," Amber grinned at Severus through the painting and then she was gone.

"Sorry," Arun ran a hand across his arm and down to the letter. Snape watched her movement saying nothing as she snatched the letter from him and jumped off the table and opened it. The letter was from Avery, she recognised his scrawling handwriting.

 _Sev, Hope this finds you well. Having a gathering on new years eve, it'll be a fun one, getting those of us left together with special guests (of course). Would be really good to see you, especially now Mul is in Azkaban. Feeling a bit isolated at home, only the Carrows for company and they are as dim as a broken lightbulb. Bring Arun if she's game but she won't be able to get in without the Dark Mark or touching somebody who has it._

"Oh, that's nice," Arun handed the letter back without smiling. "Does he think he'll be forgiven by my uncle by inviting me?"

"No, I think he's just being polite," Severus told her with his eyebrows raised. "He happens to think the Dark Lord is dead."

"You going to go?"

Snape shrugged, "I don't think much of the Carrows, I might go just to save Ave from them."

"How does he know we're back together anyway?"

Severus shrugged, "I may have mentioned it, we talk frequently but I haven't seen him since last year." He took her hands and drew her in to him, she rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, since they had fallen out he'd made it up to her in a thousand ways, most of them between the sheets, and although it was still hard to let herself feel any kind of pleasure she was enjoying herself. He started to kiss her, working his way up her neck until their lips met. "Have you been to his party's before?" he asked between kisses.

"I've heard about them," she broke away from Sev, but didn't let go of his hands. "I know he's a sadist. When you were at school I knew him better than I knew you. He used to watch me like he wanted to eat me, like a wolf watching sheep, but if I spoke to him he would go red and stutter."

Severus sniffed a laugh, "He used to like you."

"His parents and my mother were friends, I knew him before Hogwarts, along with the Crabb family and the Goyls, the Malfoys and the Blacks."

"He used to let me practice hexes on him," Severus told her. "I put him in the hospital wing more times than I can count. He was the first person I tortured."

Arun raised an eyebrow and kissed Severus again, "Oh hun, so romantic," she teased.

"Mulciber used to Imperio him. We'd make him do all kinds of things. Once we made him set Peter Pettigrew's cloke on fire." Snape's grin was wicked. "He enjoyed being used like that. But he did frighten me sometimes too, he had a cruel sense of humour and he took a lot of pleasure from watching other people in pain."

"I found him by the Great Lake once, he'd stolen two Owls and tied string to their feet and he was using a stinging hex on them to make them try and fly away. Every time the rope yanked them back to the ground he howled with laughter." Arun hated that memory, she couldn't abide people being cruel to animals. "I walked up to him and asked him why he was doing it, and he backed away from me. He couldn't look at me. I asked him again and he said, _'They are beautiful when they are in pain. Look how alive they are_ ' I knew then that he was a good recruit, I wrote to the Death Eaters about him the next day. I don't think I spoke to him again until I'd left school."

Severus squeezed her hands. "You were involved then?" he asked. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised, you are his family."

"Distant distant family. We're about as related as you are to the school Librarian."

"That mattered to the Dark Lord, and the Librarian is my mother's great grandmothers sons son's daughter."

"I don't think it did matter to him," Arun shrugged. "He had an acquired family, they were a mix of people who wanted power, glory and notoriety, the chance to be accepted, or the chance to be cruel and open about it. Which one do you think Avery was?"

"Which one were you?"

"Power." Arundel didn't even think about it, she didn't have to. Obtaining and using magic to its fullest extent was still a motivating factor. Severus seemed a little shocked at how easily she had answered.

"Says the girl who got kicked out of Hogwarts without any qualifications."

"Remember that, do you?"

"I remember watching you and wondering why you were suddenly so bad at everything, I remember being in the first year and watching you work with magic like you had been doing it for decades and then almost overnight you couldn't even levitate a feather."

"I'd made the switch from a wand to trying to use my own body. I basically started again, and remember, Sev, I started learning at a young age in countries where the laws were very different and for much of my younger years my tutor was my very distantly related Uncle Tom."

"Who cares _nothing_ for the small amount of remaining family he has left."

"Exactly, now, what am I going to wear?"

Snape ran his hands up under her hair and pulled it over her shoulders, then he pulled her head down to his, "Nothing?" he muttered.

"Avery would like that."

"Fuck him."

"I'd rather fuck you."

"What about the dress you wore at Christmas?"

"It smells of food, it's not been washed."

"You have that dark green one with the silver decorations."

Arun nodded, "I suppose we need to leave soon?"

Snape pulled her back into him, "We don't need to leave yet," he said.

Just after nine pm Arun and Sev apperated to Ireland, to Blackhound Manor, the family home of the Averys. The long-distance apparitions were never comfortable, and the change in weather was always more challenging than expected. It was warmer in Ireland, but the rain came pouring from the sky like a sheet. Sev and Arun pulled up the hoods on their cloaks as they ran down a narrow country lane and stopped next to a set of very old weathered gates. "Here we are."

"Ave's let this place go to the dogs, it wasn't like this when I was a child." Arun was shocked, she remembered the gates to be freshly painted, the vines to be tamed and the driveway up to the house to be a manicured grove of trees, not this thicket of tall grass and brambles. In response, Severus took her hand, when their skin touched the ruin's illusion lifted, and once again she could see the Blackhound Manor she remembered from her childhood. "That's a pretty bit of magic," she muttered as Severus put his hand on the gate and in response they opened. Beyond, a thestral drawn carriage waited. Snape opened the door for her, and once she had climbed in he got in next to her and settled into the seat opposite.

"Has he been raided?"

"The ministry don't know he's here, they think his house is a wreck."

"Do you know who else will come?"

"Pretty much everybody who has the Dark Mark who avoided death or prison."

"Don't you think that's a security risk?"

"We're not plotting world domination, we're having a drink."

Arun realised she sounded nervous, she sat back and looked out of the window as the coach was pulled through the trees and tried to remember the last time she was around this many Death Eaters without the protection of the Dark Lord. She hadn't bothered to guard her thoughts and Snape was snooping.

"Why do you think they hate you?"

"I'm not a Death Eater Sev. I was very clear I didn't want to be."

Snape poked her with his foot, "They fear you."

"Why?"

Severus tilted his head back as he thought about what he wanted to say, "Lucius recounted a story to me once," Sev told her. "I was away, I think I must have already started teaching at Hogwarts, and we weren't together any longer. He told me how you had walked into a meeting of the Dark Lord and his inner circle and chucked a bag at the Dark Lord's feet. You were angry, you shouted at him, you told him that if he wanted to make you look like you were picking a side again you would join the auras and hang the lot of us. Lucius told me how the Dark Lord initially ignored you, and he reached into the sack and looked at whatever was in there. Then he stood up and embraced you. What was said after was in Parseltongue, but you turned and walked out, and it was the only time anybody has spoken to Him like that."

"So what?"

"So this is the Dark Lord. A man who once tortured Matilda Crabbe for sneezing. They are terrified of you because they don't understand you. Even Bellatrix was polite to you."

"Then they are all fools. I don't believe you Sev, they treat me with contempt."

"That you are coming tonight will mean a lot to them. They think you know where He is."

"He's gone. I'm not sure I want to go to this party if that's what I'm going to have to field all night."

"What a shame we are here already, do try and be polite, these are my friends," Sev smiled at her and opened the door to the carriage.

As Arun stepped down she was transported to her childhood. She remembered coming here when she was young, sometimes for Christmas and sometimes just for weekends. She remembered Avery's parents having heated, wine-fueled, debates with her own. She remembered playing poker with her sister in their green room. Avery snr died about two years ago, his wife had shacked up with a nobody groundsman pretty soon after and they had moved to 'somewhere warm' in India and started a bed and breakfast.

Tonight the house looked good, the lights were all on like somebody had lit up a Christmas tree with soft orange candles. The huge double doors were open and music and golden evanescence spilt out from inside. Two butlers stood by the entrance dressed in full ornamental robes with their faces masked. Snape and Arun linked arms and took the stairs up to the doors two at a time, the butlers nodded to them as they went past, clearly, they were recognised. She could hear piano music, the sound of a violin and some kind of squeezebox. In the windows she could see a number of people, some were dancing, most were just chatting. It looked like a lot of people. In the entrance hall, somebody took their cloaks and they were shown through into the grand hall where most of the entertainment was. Arundel looked around for people she knew and spied Narcissa by the fire talking to Crabbs wife. Like she had a sixth sense, Narcissa looked up, her rouge lips broke into a wide smile and her white hair was styled up and looked incredible. Arun thought she was one of the most attractive people she had ever met as she looked at her across the room and her pride for her friend was immense. Narcissa broke away from Crabb's wife Matilda and came across to her, she latched on to Arun and dragged her away from Severus. "You've had her for long enough Severus Snape, she's mine now, go and play."

Severus flicked her a smile. "Where are they?"

"Down in the cellar I expect," Narcissa wrinkled up her nose as she gave him a very naughty smile. Arun caught her eye and saw a glimpse of two imperio'd muggles naked wrestling before Narcissa blocked her. "Stop it Arun, you'll get to go down later if you're lucky."

"Well, have fun Sev," she turned, lips pursed and locked eyes with Severus. In response, he spun on his heal and strode away with his head held high. Arun and Narcissa both watched him go and then fell about giggling.

For the next two hours, Arun drank and hobnobbed with the Death Eaters, did her fair share of fielding the ass-sniffers and ended up in the pool house chatting to the heavily sculpted Halasandra Crabbe as she floated around drinking champagne from the bottle with a straw.

"I'm telling you, he's a zodiac baby, a true Torus. Full of bullish anger just like his daddy."

"Won't he be he be in the same year as Draco?" Narcissa asked.

"Maybe," Halasandra sipped and sighed, her long brown hair trailing through the water and her dark mark just another tattoo in a sleeve trailing up her arm. "We should make them friends Cissy. We should make them play."

"Baby Draco would like that."

Arun couldn't join in with a conversation like this. She was torn between joining Sandra in the pool or continuing to dangle her feet in the water. From a lounging chair, a scantily clad, very tanned, lump of a woman snorted. "Goyle Jr will be in their year too."

"Will he Gretta?" Narcissa's smile was still polite, but not so open as before.

Mrs Gretta Goyle was from Germany but she had none of the classic striking proud features. Arun thought she looked like a toad.

"You will include my baby amongst Draco's friends Narcissa?"

Arun stood up, "I'm going to find the toilet," she told the women, but she took her drink and her shoes with her and had no intention of coming back. Babies made her feel sick and parents that only spoke about their children made her want to start hexing people. She went to get another drink, picturing how funny it would be to obliterate the mothers to forget their children. She did go to find the toilet and watched from the stairs as two Death Eaters tried to get into the cellar but were turned away by bouncers. She didn't recognise the two wizards who were standing either side of the cellar door, they looked too young to be part of the old crowd, but they were old enough to have left Hogwarts.

Upstairs a child was laughing, and when she looked up she saw one of the first years, she was up like she had been stung, and across to the bouncers in a few light steps. "Move it," she told them when they barred her way.

"Only approved guests," one of them told her. "Sorry."

"I'm Arundel Granville,"

The guards looked at her and then at each other, "You're not- we don't have your name."

Arun scratched at her hair, she could feel the frustration showing in the tightness of her face. "You can move, or I can make you."

"You can try, there's two of us, we know how to duel. Do you really want to make a mess of your host's party?"

Arun chuckled, "I'm not going to fight you, I'm simply going to walk past."

They drew their wands. She spread her hands as if to say 'I am unarmed' but the bouncers dropped their guard, backed against the wall and stood blank, looking away from her as if they had never seen her before. Snape's friends might enjoy using the Imperius curse but Arun was a master of it.

She walked past them and descended into the cellar, unaware of Narcissa who had witnessed everything and was currently rushing to catch up with her.

but as she navigated the vaulted ceilings she realised an altogether different party was going on down here.

For one it was quiet.

Quiet except for the cries of pain from the muggle on the floor, who was slowly ripping herself apart.

A small number of people sat in a circle around her, and a thin but muscled blond man sat forward with his wand out, forcing her to attack herself. His eyes were fixed on her, he bit his bottom lip as he watched with the hunger of a cat playing with its food. Next to him Severus lounged, speaking in low tones to Lucius Malfoy, she recognised the others who sat watching to be the Dark Lord's closest followers, there were a number of empty seats in honour of those who were in Azkaban. All of them looked around at her as she approached, all apart from Avery, who was engrossed.

Severus got up and came over to her, he took her hand, "What's up?"

Arun looked past him to the muggle, she couldn't have been much older than eighteen and she was clawing at herself like she was covered in ants. Snape moved to block her view.

"They were talking about babies, I didn't like it. Keeping the tradition alive I see."

In response, Snape's mouth grew into a thin line and he turned and went back to his seat. Arun followed and stood with her arm resting against the backboard as she watched the muggle.

To her left, Lucius leaned over to her and smiled, "I've got a good one to go next," he said. Arun raised an eyebrow. "It'll be fun." He raised his hand, Avery stopped, he looked a little annoyed that his fun was being ruined but he took away the curse and the girl stopped what she was doing and looked down at herself with mute horror.

"Why?" she asked Avery, "I've never done anything to you, I don't understand."

Lucius sat up in his chair and hissed, " _brakendio septumstumpa."_ there was the sound of bones cracking and the girl screamed as one by one her fingers snapped back on themselves.

"Oh, that's a good one!" Avery cried. "That's a good one."

Arun kept her mind blank, she'd never been one for torture as a sport but stopping them would be to damage herself and she was here now. Here and with a group of Death Eaters who had been told by the Americans that she wanted to stop their plot to bring the Dark Lord back. If she didn't prove herself to be one of them they would turn on her in a heartbeat. She ignored the girls pleas for help and smiled at Lucius, "Did you make that one up?"

The Carrows were roaring with laughter, "Do the toenail hex, Snape!" they implored, and Severus provided, with a crooked smile he forced the girls toenails to grow. She screamed as they shot out, coiled round and round and completely immobilized her.

"Ok, ok!" Goyle was crying with laughter, "let me at her." Arun watched as Goyle used the cruciatus curse on the muggle until she wet herself. The others in the room watched like sharks around a fresh kill. Arun turned to Avery and caught his sunken blue eye. His thin lips cracked into a hungry smile.

"Give Arundel a go Goyle," Avery shouted, rising up from his seat when Goyle didn't immediately stop. "I said give her a go!" and he waved his wand at Goyle and sent a knockback jinx at his arm. Arun watched everybody turn to look at her. The Carrow woman, Alecto, protested, "She's not got the stomach for this Avery, I 'spect there's a reason our Lord didn't gift her a mark. She's not powerful like us."

"Shut up Alecto," Lucius sneered. "You have no idea."

"Oh yeah, stick up for your friend Malfoy. She's good at getting men to do that for her. You and our Lord and Snape now too. And she's a fucking muggle sympathiser, I've said it before and I'll say it again."

Lucius drew his wand, Arun put her hand out to stop him. "You could say it again, but it'd be the last thing you ever say."

"Oh careful, you don't want to cross me, Granville."

"Or you'll what?" Arun picked under her nail, leaning into Snape's chair. Despite herself, she was enjoying this altercation. She'd wanted to have a go at Alecto for years.

"Crucio!"

The curse shot across the room, but Arun had been practising and she diverted the blast into the muggle. Alecto screamed, the Muggle screamed, and everybody else looked like they had been slapped. That curse was supposed to be unblockable, everybody knew it.

"I said give her a go," Avery broke the tension.

This time nobody complained, Arun stood up and clicked her neck, raised both hands at the same time and started to mutter. She felt the candles gutter. The death eaters craned forward to watch. There was a sound of paper ripping, like peeling a banana she tore the skin off the muggle girl.

"Oh, Shit!" Avery called as the muggles skin flew across the room and landed at his feet. He grabbed it up, "Oh, yes!"

The muggle was still alive, which was not what Arun had wanted, and now she was in a foul mood. Foul because she had come down here in the first place. Foul because she'd been called out by Alecto Carrow. Foul because she had been forced to show just how powerful she had become, and Foul because in keeping the delicate balance she had worked so hard to achieve she would now kill a defenceless, pathetic muggle. She raised her hand again, snarled and as she clenched her fist she hissed 'Advada Kadava.'

Lucius rose from his seat to see what she had done. Avery started to laugh and he stood up, still holding the mass of skin like a trophy. He walked across the room to her and drew her into a tight hug. He smelled of cigarettes and aftershave. "Welcome back," he muttered, "I've missed you Arun!" his smell made her feel sick, at least, she thought it was his smell. The muggle wasn't the first person she had killed and she knew it wouldn't be the last. She felt like she had detached part of her emotional capacity and shoved it into a vault. Avery broke away from her, "We all need a drink," he told the group, "We've been neglecting the guests too long."

From the shadows, Narcissa came forward and crossed to her husband and Severus took Arun's hand and lead her upstairs. "Do you want to go?" he asked.

"I want to get drunk," she told him.


	17. Chapter 17

Coffee and Cigarettes.

Arun woke up before anybody else. It was still dark as she navigated her way to Avery's kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee. It took longer than she liked, she couldn't find cups, coffee or milk, and eventually she Accio'd everything she needed from the middle of the room and heated it with magic. After a few sips of the strong black liquid she started to feel a little more with it. She didn't remember going to sleep. She'd woken up in a chair by the fire in the Green Room and she was most likely still drunk. Where was Snape? Where was everybody for that matter? Avery's house was large but there wasn't enough bedrooms for all the guests. Another sip of coffee and she clicked her neck and left the kitchen. Where were her shoes?

Somebody coughed, a door clicked open and Arun paused in her ascent to see who it was. Avery was topless, his thin frame was taught with muscle and covered with grotesque tattoos depicting torture. He had an unlit cigarette hanging from his mouth and he nodded at her with glazed eyes. "Couldn't sleep?" he asked.

"I woke up in a chair."

"We tried to get you up to bed but you wouldn't go. You blasted us out of the room and locked the door. Said you were comfortable."

"Where's Sev?"

"My parent's room."

Arun nodded and turned to continue up the stairs, Ave held out a pack of cigarettes and shook them. "Give us a sec and I'll meet you out front. I need some fresh air."

Arun continued up to the ground floor then pushed open the front door and looked out through cold early morning light to watch a light flurry of snow. She cast a heating charm on herself and sat down on the steps. After a little wait Avery joined her, he'd put on an overly large dress robe with fur lining, he looked like a cross between a monk and a muggle boxer. "I'm glad you came," Avery told her. "It was sensible."

"How's that?" Arun asked.

"Lucius told me about the Americans, they've been contacting us about you. They are trying to get us to turn you over to them. The Carrow's were tempted, I talked them out of it."

"You think my coming here was political?"

"You've never been before," he said as he held out a lighter to her. "You've never seemed that interested in bloodsport either."

"Did my demonstration bore you?"

"Merlin's beard no, I'm getting that hide turned into a jacket!" Ave chuckled. "I'm just saying, youse don't do that kind of thing without a reason and last night you shut the Carrows up. Getting quite powerful without a wand I see." He waggled his fingers at her and his thin lips slit into a hungry grin.

Arun sipped her coffee and decided not to humour him, "Are you going to stay hidden here forever Ave?"

"Here?" He motioned to his house and his grounds. "Where else would I be, a warmer climate? No, I'm happy enough here."

"I saw your mum in India, she misses you."

Avery pulled a face and took a drag on his cigarette. "She does not. She couldn't wait to leave." he tapped ash on the floor. "I enjoy having this place to myself. I've set up quite the thing here, you know?"

Arun retorted, "' _Thing_ ' like reading a good book and watching a muggle movie?" She flashed him a smile, and he turned to look at her with dead eyes and scratched his chin with his thumb. Then he pulled a card from his pocket and handed it to her.

Arun took it and studied it. "Vampire girls?" she read out loud. Avery blushed slightly, he took another drag on his cigarette whilst looking pretty smug. It was a strange thing to watch, Avery was a twitchy guy, usually so tense he appeared disfigured, always unable to make eye contact until he did with disquieting intensity. She handed the card back, "A muggle dating agency?"

He took the card and smoothed it like it was something special before putting it back into his pocket. Before he said anything more he sipped at his coffee again. She watched the corners of his eyes crease as he indulged his own introspections. A breeze ruffled his hair and he flicked it from his eyes with his cigarette hand, as he did his sleeve came down and revealed new tattoos. He saw her looking and pulled his sleeve up again. "Last time I saw you i'd just got it started, it feels like years ago."

"It was years ago. The Dark Lord's been gone at least eighteen months, I'd not seen you for a good year before that."

"It's strange how well we knew each other before Hogwarts, and how little we spoke once we were there."

"Yeah," Arun agreed, but she'd never thought of Avery as anything more than her mother's friends son. "The muggle last night, was she from one of those dating agencies?"

"There's girls you can pay to come to your house," he told her, his eyes got that hungry glint again. He chewed on the end of his cigarette as he spoke. "Sometimes they come with a pimp who tries ever so hard to protect them, they think they are the apex predator so I enjoy proving them wrong."

Avery's compulsion was far more than a throwback to the traditions of the Dark Lord's days. Arun took a long drag on her cigarette to avoid passing comment but she couldn't help but ask, "Do you always kill them after?" He only looked more hungry and more excited as he turned to speak to her. "Sometimes I keep them for a while. Sometimes I make them play games." His teeth were yellow from years of smoking when he smiled he transformed into a shark. Arun realised how hard she was fighting to stay impassive.

"You're having a great time, aren't you, Josh?" Using his first name seemed jarring. Avery didn't seem to notice. "Have you ever convinced Sev to join in?"

"Sev? I wish."

Arun laughed, more from relief than humour.

"I'm serious, he says I'm playing with my food. I could tell you things about Severus that would make you blush but he's restrained around muggles. Maybe it's his father, he just doesn't get the same pleasure as I do. He ha a deep hatred of them, no doubt, but…." he trailed off and shrugged away his attempt to excuse his friend from torture as a sport.

"It's very hard to make me blush Avery."

Avery's smile fixed to his face, he pulled another cigarette from it's pack and lit it without breaking eye contact with her. "You know Karadora Hartborn?" he waited for Arun to show some kind of recognition. When Arun nodded he leaned in and licked his tongue across his top lip, "She told me he likes to be punished, he got her to torture him, he likes it when-"

"Ave!" she hit him on the shoulder, "you made that up to spite me!"

Avery bit the end of his cigarette filter and sucked in with satisfaction. "Try it and see if it's true," he urged.

"Maybe I will," she told him.

"Maybe you will what?" Severus asked behind them. Both Arun and Avery jumped, he'd been so quiet. Arun looked up at him with a smile, "Ave's been telling me how you like to be sexually submissive."

"He would know-" Severus delivered dry humour perfectly. "Is that snow?"

"It's not settling," Avery tapped his cigarette out and stood up. "I'm going to get the house elf to cook breakfast."

"That's right, run away with your tail between your legs Joshua Avery," Arun called after him.

As he left Severus sat down in his spot and studied Arundel with concern, "I understand why you did it," he told her. "I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry that I'm snooping into your past lovers?"

Severus breathed in and looked away from her. She knew what he was talking about and it wasn't Karadora Hartborn.

"Finding the first few artefacts were relatively easy but now everything's changed. The Americans are content to try and turn my friends against me but when that fails they will try other ways to attack. If killing a muggle is what I need to do to..."

"Trust Albus Dumbledore to keep the sixth artefact safe and put your energy into destroying the fifth and the seventh."

"Trust Dumbledore?" she asked, she didn't quite believe that he'd said that.

"As hard as that might be."

"I don't trust him at all Sev, he's got agendas wrapped in agendas. Nothing he does is simple."

"So trust me if it's easier, and let me worry about Albus."

Arun frowned, she'd always wondered why Dumbledore had such a hold over Snape, but she knew if she asked she wouldn't like the answer so she didn't ask at all. "I need to break into the Ministry."

"I know."

"Will you help me do it?"

"No."

Arun snorted a laugh, it came out as passive aggressive. Snape didn't look impressed.

"I need to maintain a certain level of professionalism Arun, you know it. If I am found breaking into the ministry I will not be able to continue as a professor and should the Dark Lord come back I will not be in a position to help him. Do you think he would be pleased to find I landed myself in Azkaban?"

Arun stood up and looked down at him with disappointment, "then, there's no point delaying is there? I've only got a weeks holiday left." As soon as they left Avery's she disapperated to London feeling very put out indeed.

In London, she took the muggle underground to Camden Town where a friend lived on the main road that connected Kentish Town to Camden. A number of mudblood's lived around this area of London, the ones who still had friends and family who were non-magical, who liked to be able to tell people what they were and be accepted as just another crazy goth 'pretending' to be part of the occult. A number of squibs lived here too, making a good living selling black market magical charms to muggle collectors. If the ministry found out there would be hell to pay but Arun's contact was one of a small gang, they called themselves the Gutter Rats and they were very proud of what they had created in this little borough.

Arun went to the Black Swan, where she was pleased to see her friend with a pint of Guinness, drinking her lunch. She saw Arun and raised a glass. "Look who it is!"

"Billy," Arun greeted her but made a beeline for the bar in the hope of ridding herself of her impending hangover. As she waited to be served and studied the posters peeling from the ceiling, she noticed how Billy had shaved the sides of her head and her hair was now spiked, vivid green. The bolt through her nose had gotten bigger. Her hands were tattooed, and her ears had small silver rat earrings. She blended in perfectly with the others in the bar, all of whom were a sea of D.I.Y clothes, or black-clad. It was too early in the day for anybody to make much of an effort though, this was casual hour in Camden.

"Watcha," Billy said when Arun sat opposite her and stretched out in front of the fire. "You look nice, been somewhere fancy?"

Arun looked down at her dress robes and gave a short laugh.

"From the smell of you, I'd say so. You stink my friend."

"I've been in Ireland, funny that your drinking Guinness."

Billy studied her pint, "My doctor told me I have an iron deficiency, Guinness has iron in it, makes sense to me."

"I'm glad I found you in here," Arun told her. "Thought I might have to go to the market and find Mirron to ask after you."

"Mirron? He's been missing for a bit. Got into a spot of trouble and did a little disappearing act. You've been gone a while."

"It's been an interesting year."

"Back for good?"

"No, got a job to do."

"Same as always then," Billy rolled her eyes and picked her pint up, "Be nice for once to hear you say, 'this is just a social call Billy, I'm here to enjoy your company, listen to some good music and relax with some mates.'"

"Maybe we can do that too?"

"Knowing you, if it's a job what you got to do then you better do it before it does you." Billy always said perceptive things that made her feel ashamed, today was no different.

"Well, I would like to one day," she told her, hoping not to piss her off. "So what happened to Mirron?"

"That's the thing," Billy scratched the back of her head and leaned forward in her chair. "Damn squib bastard thought he'd try and sell back stolen sacred eight jewellery and he got cursed. He just up and wandered off somewhere three days ago and we've not been able to find him."

"Royse family?" Arun asked.

"Yeah, what've you eard?"

"Nothing other than they were robbed, but I can do some digging in exchange for some help, might even be able to get him back."

"Alright! Don't get ahead of yourself. I know what helping you means and I'm not about to say yes lightly."

Arun bit her lip, "Can I at least stay in Rat Palace?"

"We got cleared out mate, we're in the Sewer now."

"Is that a beautiful big old house in Kentish Town too?"

"Nah, it's the sewer. You seen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? It's exactly like that."

"The muggle thing with the rat who's a samurai?"

"Yeah, what's e' called?"

"No idea, Mr Mauagi?"

"Something similar, yeah, well, we've gone underground. If you don't mind the smell you're welcome."

"The Gutter Rats have returned to the gutter?"

Billy didn't seem too happy about it. "Dangerous times at the moment, got to be careful."

"Ministry or the families?"

"Bit of both. Had some trouble with werewolves a few weeks back too, just passing but they think they can shake us down for cash and to be honest, they can, so we made ourselves scarce."

"What did they want?"

"No idea, but they are heading north, lot of em too. Wanted protection charms, wolfsbane, few other _snake oil's_ ," Billy said the last bit in an American accent, which made Arun laugh, but nothing about what Billy was saying was humorous "What did you say you needed help with?"

"I didn't, and I won't here."

"Yeah? Well, must be good then," Billy laughed.

Arun followed Billy to her stall in Camden Market where she sold stolen goods to muggles and wizards alike, the muggles thought they were buying an expensive gimmick, the wizards knew they were getting cut-price goods in untraceable coinage, and Billy continuously thought she was selling to ministry agents which made her jumpy and miserable. By teatime, Arun was lightheaded, her hangover had kicked in, London was wet and cold, and Billy's cockney hug-you-stab-you act was starting to grate on her. "How much longer are you going to stand out here?"

Billy sniffed in the cold air and looked at the other sellers, "I ain't packing up until these geezers do."

"Then I'm going to get something warm to drink because this is boring."

"This is a job you silly twat," Billy told her, but she was smiling and didn't seem to disagree. "I'll have a coffee," she handed Arun muggle money and Arun went in search of hot drinks. The market was busy, nobody really looked at her, despite her wizarding community clothing, she loved the anonymity more than she could describe. She paid for two muggle coffee's and stood by the lock sipping hers. Perhaps she had been too cruel on Severus, maybe it was the hangover that had made her so quick to temper, or maybe it was the feeling she was being lied to. Perhaps she just didn't understand his relationship with Dumbledore, a man she didn't trust or particularly like. And why didn't she like him? Because she always felt he played her game better than she did, that's why. Those Deathly Hallows old timers were a tricky bunch, before her time, but she remembered her uncle talking about how much trouble they had been for him. The dark wizard Grindawald had been friends with Dumbledore, and both of them had wanted the same as Voldemort, power and supremacy over all lesser species, magical and non-magical alike. They wanted muggles to know of them, and revere them, without ever realising what a stupid notion that was, only, Dumbledore had realised eventually. At least, he realised dominance over muggles wasn't the thing most important to him. Arun doubted he'd ever stopped trying to gain power.

It started to rain. Arun curled her lip and splashed back to the market, where the tents would stop the worst of the weather. She handed her friend her coffee and they stood together without speaking, watching the dregs of the shoppers slink from stall to stall.

A hunched figure in a great big coat detached himself from the shadows, looked left and right and then slid up to the table,

"Whatcha Mun, up to much?"

Mundungus Fletcher had a large hat on, under which a straggly mess of ginger hair poked forth, he scratched under the knitting and winced at his name. "Not much Bil, bit o'this, bit o'that."

"Anything good?"

"Nah," he turned his eyes to Arun, "Ain't seen you around for a while."

"I've got some things you might like to see Mun," Arun told him, thinking back to Borgin and Burkes.

"I've got some things for you too n'all," he said as he drew a bag from his pocket and gave it to Bill, "Not this lot though, this is just interesting tat."

"Anything silver?" Billy asked.

"Yeah, got this locket look, s'got a bat on it and the photo inside's been frozen for the muggles but every so often it'll change just to fuck with'em."

"Nice, got some buckles too I see, and what's this what's this! You cheeky bugger, who d'ya lift this from?"

"Somebody who ain't got a use for it any more. Don't touch it."

Arun had a look at a silver cup with the Black family logo on it, "Cursed?"

"Only if you drink from it my friend."

"Mun, I can't sell cursed."

"Maybe Arun can remove the curse?"

"Maybe i'm not for hire," Arun pitched in.

Mundungus pulled the corners of his mouth down and put the cup back into the bag, "We'll see," he muttered. "You staying' with us?"

"Yeah, for a bit."

"That's nice love, be good to catch up, be good to chat, you know what I mean? It's been a right mare since you were last around, you hear about Mirron?"

"I've heard."

"Yeah, right mare, right barney." Mundungus put his head to one side and studied Arundel, "You cold? you're shivering."

"Freezing."

"I'll take her back to the Sewer, Bill, 'ere," he reached into his pocket and gave her some muggle money, "Get us something for tea on your way back, yeah?"

"A' cummon' Dung, I've been working all day!"

Mundungus laughed and turned to walk away before Billy could register any more displeasure.

"See you in a bit," Arun said to Billy before she followed Mundungus away from the shop stall. They went out the market, down the road and then took steps down onto the canal, then they continued along this way until they stopped by a heavily graffitied door. When magically unlocked, lead down a very steep set of steps into the dark damp. "This smells awful," Arun complained as Mun led her down under London.

"Does it?" he cackled, "I 'adent noticed. Look 'ere, welcome to our new 'umble abode." He kicked the second door open with his foot and Arundel saw a number of gas lights floating in a cavernous chamber where four water outlets combined to one and disappeared down a funnel in the middle, a number of walkways and platforms extended around the outside and Arun saw a bunch of bedraggled tents.

"Nice," she muttered, and partly she meant it, despite the smell and the cold damp it did have a certain charm. She saw a few heads poke out of the tents but she didn't recognise anybody.

"Yeah, well it's been tough recently. 'Ad a bit of a barney with some werewolves…" Mun trailed off. "Billy said, right?"

"She mentioned it."

"Proper barney. Here's my tent love." He pushed a canvas sheet aside and went in, Arundel followed into a wide canvas room full of locked boxes. "You rest your pins, I'll get a cuppa on."

"Thank's mun."

"So, what you here for? Usually when you turn up trouble follows."

Arun sat down on a camp chair, she didn't feel very well at all. She was trying her hardest to ignore everything that had happened the night before, but her hangover was making her irritable and she just felt sick. Now she knew she wouldn't even get a good night's sleep she was not happy at all.

"I've got a tricky job to pull off and I need a team."

"Need the Rat's do you lovely?"

"Maybe I do."

"Maybe we in't for hire," he used her words against her.

"Give us that cup and I'll break the curse for you," she sighed.

"Rescue Mirron and we'll talk."

"You know where he is?"

"Might do."

"Do you or don't you?"

"I got an _Idea_ where e's gone. Dunno for sure."

Arun pursed her lips, she really didn't have time to play detective. "Tell me where to go and I'll get him back."

"That's the thing, e's...well, e's a cat."

"He's a cat?"

Mundungus scratched his hair under his hat and nodded. "He got cursed, and e' wandered off and we tracked him to this old muggle woman's house and she said he's a cat. Comes and goes for his food every few days."

Arun blinked, "Right."

"Silly squib bastard."

She stood up and clicked her neck, "Where's this muggle's house?"

Getting Mirron back wasn't easy. Cat Mirron didn't want to be trapped, and she spent the afternoon sipping tea and eating stale cake with an old woman who was suffering the effects of dementia and kept thinking that Arun was her daughter whilst waiting for Cat-Mirron to turn up for his din-din's. When he finally did she stupefied him and shoved him in a bag, then carried him back to the Sewer where she got Mundungus to hold on to him until she broke the curse on the Royse family necklace. It wasn't a strong curse, she broke it by reverse engineering it like unpicking a piece of knitting. Mundungus was very pleased because the necklace wasn't damaged and they watched together as Mirron transformed back.

"Silly sod," Mundungus told the boy as he looked around surprised.

"Aw, Mun! I was a cat," Mirron complained. "Why you gotta bring me back for?"

"There's gratitude for ya," Mun shook his head and looked at Arun as if to say 'can you believe this guy.'

When Mirron had been sent away Mun turned to Arun and gave her a nod. "Thanks for that love, I'd had a proper nightmare getting him back."

"Billy said 'nobody' knew where he'd gone?"

"Yeah, 'cos Billy don't know. 'Cos Billy's got interest's 'n' she's not that bright."

Arun pulled a face, "So?" she asked. "It's past teatime Mun, you going to let me use the Rat's?"

Mundungus sat back and puffed out his cheeks, "I'll see what I can do. You're going to a've to give me something to work on."

"I need a layout of the Ministry of Magic, specifically the way to the Department of Mysteries."

Mundungus scratched his stubble and sniffed, then a rye smile crossed his mouth. "Give me till tomorrow yeah?"

"Thank you."

"Tell you what, this place is a dump, go stay at the Caldron and i'll come find you there tomorrow."


	18. Chapter 18

Rats and Recoveries.

Her room in the Leaky Caldron was more welcome than the Sewer, but in the quiet, all she could do was reflect on everything that had happened. She thought about Avery's compulsions, puzzled over Severus' friendship with him. She thought about the Carrows and how easily they had forced her to do something so terrible. She thought about the werewolves and the Americans and tried to figure out if they were working together, and she planned her raid on the Ministry.

Despite all the things going round in her head, she slept well and in the morning Mundungus met her in the bar by the fire. "I ain't saying anything in here," he told her. "But I've got something tasty."

"Brighton?" she asked. "I'll side-along us."

"I do like the seaside."

They went out back and Arundel apperated, then they walked along the windy seafront past the Hilton and then stood next to the railings looking out to sea. Mundungus drew a map from his pocket and gave it to her, "Accurate as I can get it."

She opened it and saw a blank piece of paper. "How do I use it?"

"Tap it and say, A've a butchers at this Barny Rubble. Just fold it up to put it away."

Arun did as told and across the page a spiders web of a map appeared full of scribbles and snippets of information. "You have been busy."

"Getting in will be the hard bit, you can't apparate and if you take the flu it tracks your magical signature, the Department of Mysteries is down on level nine. Weird place, all black tiled apparently, only one way in and badly lit. Then behind that is some kind of room that will disorientate intruders. We couldn't find out more than that about it. The Unspeakables don't speak much."

Arun folded the map up and put it in her pocket then leant over the railings as she thought, "Find out much about the Unspeakables shift patterns?"

"Yeah, a bit, It's on there. There's profiles, if you tap on the map you'll get more info on the people we found out about."

"This is good work."

"Just think kindly on poor ol' Dung when you 'ave things to sell and buy."

Back in the Caldron, Arun chucked Flu powder into the fire and called Lucius. It took a little while for her friend to respond.

"I need to talk to you face to face, can you come to me at the Caldron?"

"Can't we talk…?"

"No, not safe."

Lucius looked down at something in his arms that Arun couldn't see then he looked back up and appeared torn, "Sorry Arun, it's Draco, he's ill and I don't want to leave him, can I send Narcissa?"

"That would be great. What's wrong with Draco?"

"He's all snotty and he keeps crying, he's got a temperature too."

Arun made a face that said she was worried, "I hope he gets better quickly."

"I'll get the doctor out if he's still hot tonight. Give me a moment and i'll get my wife."

He disappeared from the fire, as Arundel waited she thought about how Flu Powder was monitored by the Flu Regulation Board at the ministry. It would be good to find out the extent of their ability to monitor, could they listen in? Could they identify the wizards talking? She knew that the ministry monitored apparitions and could trace people when they travelled, but what else could they do?

Her fire turned green and Narcissa Malfoy stooped and crawled out of the flames. She brushed soot from her hair and gave the chimney an undignified glance. "Hello darling," she muttered and smiled, but her own eyes and nose were red and puffy and she sounded pretty terrible. "So? What can I do for you today, a spot more muggle torture perhaps, a cunning plot to change the world?" She sounded slightly delirious.

"Are you ok?"

"A little ill, I thought at first it was a hangover from Avery's party but it seems I was mistaken. Little Draco's ill too, I think he caught it from Goyle's child."

Arun smiled, "I've got a tonic somewhere that might clear your sinuses through, it might be back at Hogwarts though."

"Why are we in the Caldron?" She asked, moving to the window to look down on the street below. Arun's room was one of the nicer ones, looking down over Diagon Alley rather than the muggle street.

"I'm-" Arundel paused and held up her hand, then she warded the room and put out the fire. Narcissa watched her without comment, and she checked Arun's work and added spells of her own to strengthen the protections.

"If anybody is listening in now they are a more powerful wizard than I've ever-" she sneezed and didn't start talking again as she looked for a hanky.

"I'm going to break into the Department of Mysteries," she told her friend, watching the smile set on her face and a dangerous glint shine in her cold ridden eyes. Arun went to the map and opened it. "'Ave a butchers at this barny rubble'- look?"

"Why do you need to break in?"

"My sister thinks there is a curse-breaker in there called the Oran Spike which will destroy the Grants Artifacts. My contacts only got me so far. I don't know about the rooms, I don't know about the traps and curses protecting it, I need more information."

Narcissa blinked and eased herself into a chair, she steepled her fingers as she thought. "You want to know what Rookwood told the Death Eaters?"

"I can't very well ask him since Karloff sent him to Azkaban."

"You're lucky you asked me. I might not be a Death Eater myself but I have my uses. I hosted Rookwood on a number of occasions, I may even know more than my husband about this. I can tell you now that you won't get in there by yourself."

"Why?"

"Because it's too well guarded. First, you will need to get into the Ministry without them realising you are there. You can't apparate, the Flu network is heavily protected, as are the portkeys. Then you would need to get down to sublevel nine without being spotted which is a difficult journey to make because the elevators are the only way down and they are crowded. There are protection spells in the elevator to reveal invisibility spells and enchantments too."

"You think it can't be done?"

"I think you would need to be very clever about it." Narcissa paused and studied her fingernails, "When you get down there you will find a chamber with twelve doors, they spin to confuse you, I don't know all the rooms down there but I do know that Rookwood stole from the Time Room and the Mysterious and Dangerous Objects room for the Dark Lord."

"What happens when you take items from there?"

"The rooms protect themselves, there's blood magic which identifies who works in the rooms and who doesn't. Rookwood could take items because he was identified, you won't be able to."

"I thought the ministry had banned blood magic, It's a dark art isn't it?"

"Oh yes, but everybody's a hypocrite given time and necessary."

"Who still works there?"

"I only know about two, Saul Croaker and Broderick Bode."

"I may need Lucius' help to get in."

"I wondered when you were going to say that. Please don't jeopardize him Arun, we're just getting back on track."

Arun sat back and smiled, "Tell him to come around teatime tomorrow, he can hear my plan and if he doesn't like it, he can walk away."

Narcissa thought about it for a moment, then she nodded and stood up, "Could you make Lucius some of that tonic? I'm ill, he's ill and baby Draco is too. He's by far better than all of us and he's the one complaining the most. I swear to Merlin I'll jinx his mouth shut if I have to hear another lamentation about how awful he feels." Narcissa got up and chucked some powder on the fire, nodded to Arundel and disappeared into the flames.

Arundel spent the rest of her time shopping for potion ingredients and a live pixy. She had some idea what she was going to do but it could go wrong in so many ways that she felt a little sick. Being in the open with the Americans lurking was nerve-racking enough, but when people greeted her by name and told her that they were the parents of such and such who was very much enjoying her classes, it made it all the worse. She spent the evening brewing, first a sinus-clearing potion for the Malfoys, then a potion and antidote for herself.

The potion she made for herself was not a difficult one, but a hard one to perfect and she needed it to be precise, she used her own recipe, which was based on one Severus had taught her, rather than the standard one, which she thought produced inconsistent results. First, she sliced five caterpillars, livid green ones with black tufts of hair down their back. And she added to spring water with a dash of salt and heated until the potion turned red. She peeled a shrivelfig and shook the skins until they started to puff and turn yellow, on the turn she dropped them into the water and stood back to watch if they would start to emit noxious green gases, but they didn't and the potion turned yellow. She turned the heat down so the liquid simmered and she made a cup of tea whilst she waited for it to turn purple. Using one hand, and holding her cup of tea in the other she crushed four rat spleens with the flat of her knife, then minced a handful of daisy roots and added them in at the same time. The potion turned green. Next, she added four drops of leech juice and more of the shrivelfig until it turned pink. A stripped and chopped caterpillar, this time large and hairy, and then she left the potion simmering for half an hour until it glowed. She decanted it, vanished the mess and then started on the antidote, which was tricker to make but not beyond her at all. When completed it shone a bright red, and she checked that the intensity of the shine was the same before she bottled it too. She tested them on the pixy, who shrank to the size of a pea, and then back to its original form with the antidote and she smiled to herself and cleaned up. Then she worked on her clothing and her carry bag, which would need to shrink and grow with her, and this took her into the early hours of the morning and beyond to lunchtime. She managed a nap before Lucius came.

"You've been brewing?" he asked, sniffing the air. "I can hardly smell and I can smell that."

It was the first time Arundel gave any thought to people outside her door smelling what she was up to. "I should have been more careful," she muttered. "Here," she passed him his sinus potion and told him to take two small drops on the tongue. He did as told and his face grew long and then he blinked and swallowed and drew in a deep breath.

"Well, that's quite something."

"The wards are still set, we can talk as soon as the fire's out."

Lucius turned and waved his wand at the fireplace, vanishing the embers, then he turned back and smiled. "So, what is your plan and where do I come into it?"

"You're simply going to walk me in…."

A day later, the day before term started and the students came back to Hogwarts, Arundel and Lucius walked to the Ministry of Magic. They walked in silence, primarily because Arundel was so small she couldn't have spoken to Lucius unless she used a projection charm and she hid in the folds of his cloak as they passed into the ministry buildings through a flushing toilet. Lucius strode into the great chamber and was met by Cornelius Fudge, a pre-appointment set up the day before, and Arun used her ability to fly unassisted to get to the escalators. She waited above the wooden frame until somebody opened the door and then she dropped onto their collar and hid in the folds of their clothes. Unfortunately, the witch she had chosen had dandruff, and up close it looked like huge flat loaves of bread. six people in total got into the elevator, and Arun blasted the level eight button with a knockback jinx to get it to press in with enough force. Eventually, only two people were left in the elevator, and they both got off at level seven, leaving Arun alone standing by the towering doors, holding on to a screwhead for dear life as the elevator dropped.

The door pinged, she flew out into a hallway, which looked impossible to cross being so small. The world from this angle was a very different place. She levitated, paying more attention than ever to spiders webs, and made her way to the only door at the end of the hall. Now she had to wait, and this was where her potion would be tested. If it was potent enough she would not grow bigger, but if she had the mix wrong and nobody came until the afternoon she could be the size of a small child.

Luckily for her she only had a short time to rest, the elevator pinged again and two unspeakables came down the corridor. "I don't understand why it would counteract the effects of death though," one unspeakable said as they walked. "It seems like it should enhance them."

"Perhaps to experience death is to truly live," the other pondered, "And in denying a death, as is the case here, it is the cruelest thing that could be done."

"And as such life is a curse?"

"Naturally."

Arun flew up and landed on one of the unspeakables shoulders, the one who had longer hair and had just said 'naturally', and she very carefully clung on to his collar and whispered the imperius curse in his ear. She was so subtle about it that he didn't fight, and she didn't order him to do anything for a while, simply observing like a parasite the usual functions of the host. He was called Jorgan Horgas and he made his way to the Time Room by standing in the middle of a circular hall and simply saying the name of it.

Arun flew from his collar and looked around a room full to the brim with clocks and time turners. There were a number of birds in cages and the ticking was deafening. She cracked her neck and decided to test out Jorgan Horgas' will power. She told him to cross the room and pick up a time turner and put it in his pocket. Then she watched as he looked left and right, checked the door and then picked a turner off the wall. He even rearranged the others so it looked like nothing was missing. He put the turner in his pocket, whistled and then went back to his work. Arun flew across to him again, crawled inside his pocket and muttered a reducio curse which shrunk the time turner small enough that she could put it into her own charmed bag, which also held the painting of Amber, open so that her sister could pick it out. She waited a moment to see if transferring the object to another place would alert the Ministry traps but nothing happened. "It worked," she hissed at her sister.

"I've always wanted one of these!" Amber giggled from the depths of the purse.

"I'm going to try for the next room."

"Good luck!"

She bid Horgas go to the Mysterious and Dangerous Objects room and he seemed quite happy to oblige, she told him what she was after, and all she had to do was sit back and wait for him to comply. She felt him move but remained in his pocket.

"Hello Broderick," he greeted somebody who must have already been inside. "Where's Saul?"

"What are you doing in here Jorgan?"

"My research suggests that one of the items in here has time specific properties that warrant further study."

"Really?"

"Really, but the problem is, I'm not sure what it's categorized under. I need to see the listings."

Broderick grumbled, "Can't you come back tomorrow?"

"I'm working on the Fountain of Youth tomorrow."

He grumbled again, "Fine, fine, give me a moment to go and get the volumes out." there was a squeak as one turned and walked away, and then Jorgan started to jog, nearly shaking Arun from his pocket as he did. He skidded to a halt and then he opened a case and pulled out a large item. It nearly sliced Arun in two as it fell into his pocket. She immediately used the Reducio spell on it and it slid seamlessly into her own purse and then through to her sister. Jorgan jogged back to the spot he had been in before, and Broderick returned about ten mins later with thick ledgers and put them down on the table. Arun sat back and watched as Jorgan actually went through the ledgers, found the item with time properties and then took it with him to the Time Room to study it. She was impressed with how he played it casual, but after sitting in his pocket for another five hours, accompanying him to the restroom and watching him eat and chat with his work colleagues at lunch she really wished he would just excuse himself and get out of there. He didn't finish work until six pm, and then he walked from the Ministry to the Caldron for her because he had a dinner date. She made him walk her up to her room and then, once she was back to her natural size and he was back drinking in the bar, she took away the curse and immediately went to the toilet.

Arun ate, paid for her room, and got back to Hogsmeade, she didn't waste time in the village and she hurried on to Hogwarts. When she was safe inside its walls she made her way to the Dungeons and Severus' quarters but he wasn't at home. It didn't look like he had been for a while, the fire wasn't lit and everything was tidy. His rooms looked very much like his potions classroom, the walls were lined with books and jars of ingredients and personal potions with names like 'Experimental batch N'25' and from her pocket, she took the shrinking and regrowth potions and placed them on his shelf where they glowed quite pleasantly. She saw a stack of marking ready to give back and she thumbed through red ink and laughed at some of his annotations. " _I don't think I have ever read anything as dimwitted as this, MacGrew...'_ She put the marking back and puffed out her cheeks. She wondered if she should leave him a note, or if she should wait for him and why was she here anyway? He hadn't come with her, he didn't help at all. Too concerned with Dumbledore to help her in any way. As soon as her anger towards him flared it disappeared, she just needed to sleep.

Snape's bedroom was through the right of two arched doorways which were engraved with symbols denoting different elements. She noticed that his bed was made and she started to wonder if he was at Spinners End and hadn't come back yet. That his cloak hung up on the back of his door made her think differently. She looked at her wrist watch, it was nine o'clock at night, and so she took her shoes off, got his fire going with a wave of her hand then she dumped her bag on the floor and slid into his bed. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep.

"Why don't you trust her Albus?"

"Need you ask that? Truly Severus? Must I remind you who she is? Blood magic is strong, and her blood is truly tainted."

Arun blinked in the dark of Severus' bedroom and realised who he was talking to. She sat up very slowly so she could hear better.

"We do have some choice, Headmaster."

"If I give her what you ask I risk everything."

"If you don't you condemn her."

The headmaster made a tutting noise, "Sometimes sacrifice is required for the greater good."

"The way I see it, she's the only person who wants to work towards it."

"Is that what she's told you?" Dumbledore asked. "Oh Severus, I forget that your capacity to love is your greatest weakness as well as your greatest strength."

"Right now she is looking for an item which is powerful enough to destroy the artefacts."

" _Is_ she?"

"Yes!" Snape sounded exasperated. "Please Headmaster! I don't ask for much but this is more than just a blind fools infatuation. If anybody knows where the Dark Lord is _she_ does."

"Which is why-"

"Which is why we must give her the artefacts. Both of them."

Albus went quiet, a door opened and closed. Arundel realised that her heart was racing so much she could hear the blood rushing past her ears, and then footsteps came closer to the bedroom door, and she slid back under the bedsheets and pretended to be asleep. She heard Snape open the bedroom door, pause, study her and whisper, "Arun? How much did you hear?"

She didn't respond, and when he sat on the bed next to her and ran his hand across her cheek she stayed in character and didn't 'wake up.' Eventually, he had to believe her lie, and he gave a deep sigh, undressed and slid into bed next to her.

In the morning Severus was gone, but he'd left her a note saying it was nice to see her, even if she was asleep, and that he would call on her after the days teaching was done. She went back to her room, sat heavily in front of her own fire and for a good hour she didn't move. The thoughts going through her head were repetitive, over and over she wondered if Severus had betrayed her or if he was protecting her. She wondered about Dumbledore and his views on her and if she should feel nervous or enlightened by what he had privately said to her partner. She thought about her uncle and how much of her life he had affected. There wasn't a single moment where she was rid of his influence. Had Dumbledore really wanted to give her a way out by offering her a job teaching, like a rescue puppy? Look after something and get engrossed in somebody else for once, please Arun, do something for humanity? Make something of yourself, Make yourself somebody I can be proud of? She actually swore out loud. The presumption of his actions was maddening. And then there was the muggle girl, not the first she had killed in cold blood, but the first that hadn't felt like she had destroyed part of herself by doing it, and in a way that was more worrying. To what end? She asked herself. She had the Oran Spike, if Snape was successful she would have three of the grants artefacts, and then she just had to set the trap to get the rest and take those bastards down. Easy right? As soon as she had Dumbledore's two she could get out of this hellhole for sure, she was done with teaching. The children repulsed her, the work exhausted her and the politics amongst the teaching staff made her feel sick.

"Arun? You there?"

She looked up at her bag, then pulled out the picture of Amber and rehung it. Her sister stood behind the frame and she looked bad. Really bad. And she kept glancing behind her.

"Amber?"

"Quick," her sister motioned her over. "Take them-" her hand shot out of the painting and she dropped the Oran Spike and the time turner into Arundel's hands.

"Amber, what's happening?"

"It's- Arun I have to go. I have to go now. I'll contact you when I'm safe."

Amber disappeared from the frame, behind her Arun was sure she saw one of the Americans burst through the door to her room. Then everything went dark. Arundel stood dumb, she backed away from the painting and studied the objects on the floor. The Americans had found her sister.


	19. Chapter 19

Nifflers and bowtruckles.

Griffin and Jacob sat together in Creature Club, playing with a Bowtruckle and discussing their holidays. Arun sat at the front of the class reading up on the next week's lessons and deciding how she wanted to teach them. She had deliberately placed Griffin and Jacob near her desk so she could listen in to what they were saying and she was glad of it too, because it didn't take long for them to forget who might be listening.

"My mother said that Hogwarts will be attacked. She said that the Centaurs fought off a number of werewolves a few days ago but Dumbledore's been ordered to keep quiet about it. The Daily Prophet isn't printing either."

Arun looked up at the redhead and wondered who her mother was. There were a number of Griffins who worked at the ministry that she knew about, but none of them were in positions where they would know something like that.

"Do you think they are after it too?"

"I think they are after us, but if we are going to be attacked that would be the perfect time for Snape to steal it. I bet he invited them here to cause a distraction."

Jacob leaned in, "But what can _we_ do?" he pressed. "We've already landed Rab in . I won't put anybody else at risk."

"We're all at risk," Griffin growled. "I think we should speak to the Centaurs. I've been reading up on them. I think they will speak to me."

"There's more in that forest than horsemen; I think the entrance is there too."

"To the hidden vault network?"

"Quieter," Jacob hissed.

Griffin leaned in closer, "You managed to research?"

"I got my mum to take me to the Balthasmory Historical Library in Edinburgh where the records are kept for Hogwarts construction. There's a whole network of vaults and….I mean...it's changed a lot but…It mentioned curses...it mentioned...I don't know if they are the same ones but..." he shrugged.

With a flick of her finger, Arundel caused the bowtruckle to stumble and fall into the candle, which tipped over and caught the corner of their parchment on fire. Griffin put it out and Arundel made a display of looking up at them. "Honestly, you come here to look after these creatures, not put them at risk of harm. I'm giving you both detentions. See me tonight after dinner and bring your cloaks."

"Professor…" Jacob started to complain, but Griffin kicked him under the table and gave a quick shake of her head. She was studying Arundel in a way that unnerved her and when she read her mind she found some resistance, Griffin had started to teach herself oculomancy which meant that she had worked out Arundel had the ability to do it, and perhaps suspected both Snape and Dumbledore too. Arundel responded with a smile.

"You want to say something Freya?"

"Are we going outside?"

"I haven't decided yet."

The evening lessons went smoothly, one lesson was purely studying and essay writing in preparation for working with a new creature. One was writing up care notes after a practical, she hosted a potions revision group before tea time, where the focus was on the difference between cutting, crushing, smashing and ripping ingredients, then she got herself tea in the great hall, spoke to the herbology professor about the resin Amber and it's properties and then made her way back to her rooms where she found Griffin and Jacob waiting for her in the hall.

"Give me a moment to change and we'll go down," she told them as she disappeared into her study.

Griffin looked past her, "Is this where you live professor?" She asked. "It's very nice. What's that on your mantelpiece?"

Arun looked at the Oran Spike. "My sister studies ancient magical cultures, it's a replica of a dagger from the Mayan people."

"That sounds like a fun job," Griffin actually looked wistful, but Arun was too full of worry for her sister to humour her.

"It's a dangerous job, I have no idea if she's dead or alive and there's not a thing I can do about it," she'd said too much. Griffin's face fell, Arun turned and disappeared into her room. A moment later she came out in boots and trousers, with her cloak around her shoulders and a scarf around her neck.

"We're going to the forest," she told them as she pointed for them to walk.

They left the castle and headed down through the grounds. It was already dark and Arun pushed her hands together, breathed into them and a lantern formed which gave off a warm golden light.

"How'd you do that?" Jacob asked. "You didn't use a wand."

"I don't have a wand."

Both children looked up at her with more questions than she cared to answer. "Did somebody take it from you?" Griffin asked.

"No."

"Did you break it?" Jacob asked.

"No."

"Were you banned from using it?"

"Griffin-" Arundel breathed in and stopped, they had reached the whomping willow which was swaying slightly, shaking birds from its branches when they dared to land.

"Professor?" Jacob asked, an edge to his voice now he could see the first trees of the forest. "Will we be safe in there?"

"Safe is a relative term. Are there things in there that might kill us? Yes, there are. My advice to you is to stay close to me."

"Why are we going in?"

"I need Centaur dung for my second years to analyze."

Arun watched Griffin and Jacob exchange glances.

"What?"

"It's…" Griffin bit her lip. "It's nothing. I've never met a Centaur before."

Lies, so many lies.

"What else do you know about these forests?" Arun asked.

"That over the years they have built up a number of magical beasts, many are not native and have escaped from the Care of Magical Creatures department. There are stories that there are vampires and werewolves too."

"Vampires and Werewolves," Arundel chuckled. "How frightening."

"It's not funny," Jacob told her, his voice full of spite. "Those creatures survive off of the pain and misery of others."

Arun stopped walking and turned so the light shone in Jacobs face, "Know that as a fact do you? Have you ever met a werewolf or a vampire before?"

Jacob hung his head, "No."

"Then, on what premise do you base your assumption?"

Griffin stepped in, "Everybody knows," she said. "Cases of attacks are well documented. What about Greyback?"

"What about him?" Arun turned and started to walk again.

"He turned everybody he could, particularly children, he sided with the Dark Lord."

"So did the Death Eaters, are all wizards bad too?"

Griffin and Jacob went quiet. For a little while, all that was heard was the crunch of leaves underfoot.

"I heard a rumour, Professor, about werewolves coming to Hogwarts," Griffin told her.

"Did you?"

"If the rumours were true, if they did come, would we...would we be safe."

"Hogwarts is one of the safest places in the world."

"But…"

"Yes?"

Griffin bit her lip then stopped walking and looked deeper into the forest. "It's a big place, the forbidden forest."

"If that's what you are worried about, why did you come with me tonight?"

"I," she stopped, but she didn't stop looking into the darkness beyond Arundel's lantern. "I was told that werewolves attacked the forest a few days ago."

Arun nodded and looked into the darkness. "Told by whom?"

"My mother."

It was too quiet, "Why would she know?"

"She's an Aura."

With a flick of her hand Arun changed her vision so she could see better in the gloom, she was surrounded. Somewhere between twenty and thirty werewolves, out of the reach of the lantern but watching silently. There wasn't a full moon tonight, but one scratch could see a person bleed to death without powdered silver and dittany and Arun only had enough for herself.

"Get behind me, get your wands up."

Jacob looked very pale indeed, Griffin resolute, they did as they were told.

In the darkness somebody started to laugh, or growl, it sounded very similar.

"Arundel Granville, what a pleasant surprise." Fenrir Greyback emerged from the shadows. "Thought I warned you away."

"You warned me, and I ignored you."

"That was silly," he chuckled, then noticed the children for the first time. "Brought me dinner did you?"

"Not today. I need them."

Fenrir growled, and behind him a number of eyes glinted in the lantern light. The wolf pack had crept closer.

"How many of you are there?"

"More than you can take on. I suppose if you are here we have a conflict of interest Granville. That's a pity."

"Answer me this, before you kill us," Arundel urged, buying time as she tried to edge away from the approaching mass of werewolves. "Are you working for the Americans?"

That seemed to surprise the werewolf. He stopped advancing and licked a tongue over his teeth, "We've got to kill the kids Arun, can't have them back at school, telling tails, and if you try and stop us I'll kill you too."

Arun stepped back a few more times, waiting for the werewolves to get into range. Then she grabbed Griffin and Jacob by the rist and launched herself through the trees, they hit on branches and narrowly missed slamming into tree trunks as she fled, and the werewolves gave chase.

"Now would be a good time to tell me where the vault is," she screamed at Jacob as they flew.

"You know?" Jacob cried as Griffin started to shoot repelling spells at the advancing werewolves.

"I know Jacob, just tell me where to run to."

Fenrir had nearly caught them up, she felt air shimmer as his sharpened nails slashed inches away from her leg. Griffin hexed him and he fell back howling.

"The great lake," Jacob cried.

Arundel veered up, "Hold on!" she shouted and she Jumped into the air and flew them through the thick canopy then across the top of the trees back in the direction they had come from. On the edge of the lake Arundel landed and checked herself over for bites and scratches. "Do the same," she commanded of the children.

"I've been scratched," Griffin's voice wavered, Arun ran across to her and studied a long cut on her arm.

"It's ok, you won't turn from that but there will be side effects. She reached into her bag, the one charmed bigger on the inside, and she pulled out a bottle. "Give me your arm." she said and poured the powder onto the cut.

"Will they find us here?"

Arun set wards then sat heavily on a rock by the water's edge and ran a hand through her hair. "I think it's time you were honest with me," she said.

"We could say the same," Griffin poked her wand in Arun's direction. "You knew him. Seemed like you were friends."

"I know Fenrir, yes, I knew he was coming here. I tipped the Centaurs off."

"And why are you here _Professor?_ " Griffin raised her wand as if to attack. Jacob wasn't paying them attention, he'd gone into the tree line searching for the vault entrance.

Arun gave her student a surly look, Griffin raised the wand higher. "I don't appreciate being threatened."

"I don't appreciate being taken into the forest as an offering for a werewolf."

"That's not what happened here."

"Then what happened!" Griffin screamed.

"You and I are searching for the same thing. The vault and the cause of the hauntings."

"The Grants Artefacts?"

"Yes."

For a moment Griffin looked like she would keep her wand on Arundel, but she lowered it. "Why are you looking for them?" Griffin asked.

"I would ask you the same."

"To stop the Dark Lord from coming back."

"They couldn't make him come back even if they were all together."

"Then, to stop Snape from getting so powerful he could take the dark lords place."

"That's the last thing Severus wants."

"If that's true, why are you looking for them?" Griffin pressed.

Arundel bit her lip, was she really going to tell a child what was going on? She was. She was about to tell this sixth-year girl, who looked so much like Snape's childhood love Lilly, everything.

"Griffin, I'm-"

There was a piercing scream from the forest. Arun and Griffin spun around.

"Jacob!" Griffin cried.

"Wait-" Arun called but Griffin was already sprinting back into the forest.

The scream came again, this time to their right. Arun overtook Griffin and arrived at a cave entrance first. She blocked Griffin and slapped her hand onto her forehead. "Go back to the school, you served your detention, it was boring, you didn't find any centaur dung."

Griffin stumbled, blinked a few times as her brain reordered itself.

"I seem to have got lost," she muttered. "I'll be going now."

Arun watched her stumble through the trees and she hoped to god that the girl didn't run into Fenrir's people. The scream came again, Arun turned and slid down feet first into the cave. Which turned into a slide and she landed in ice cold water in the pitch black.

Something wound around her feet and she blasted it with a jet of hot water which made it recoil sharply. Then she swam as fast as she could towards what she hoped was the surface. When she came up for breath there was an inch between her and the cave ceiling. She cast an air bubble around her head and dived down again. This time casting a lumos spell to see where she was going. She saw a flicker of movement to her right and she followed through a tunnel and then up into a chamber where she saw that Jacob had been pinned to the wall with thick web. His skin was turning blue. She shot a blast of hot air at the sticky webbing which shrieked and recoiled and Jacob fell to the floor.

"Where's your wand?" she asked him. "Accio Jacobs wand!" from the depths of the water it shot into her hand and she pressed it into his and used a drying spell to warm him up. "Come on Jacob, wake up."

His eyes flicked open, and in their reflection, she saw many eyes. She rolled and blasted the creature before she even knew what it was. A huge spider screeched and stumbled away.

"What are you!" Arundel screamed.

"What do you think, human!" The spider cried.

Arundel too a few steps back, collected herself and looked around. There were a lot of monstrously huge spiders in this layer and only one exit. In one hand she created a fireball, the other ice and water. The spider took steps back but it's legs went into attack positions.

"I'm looking for haunted objects, They should be in a vault near here. Do you know where I can look?"

The spider clicked it's fangs and bristled. "He says to us to protect it but we sees all of the ones we have lost. We wants it gone."

"I can get rid of it."

"No, human, I can't let you leave. We must stay safe from your kind."

"You think I care about your existence?"

"Caring or not is your luxury, but trusting you is ours and we don't trust you at all."

"If you're going to kill me you might as well tell me where the haunted objects are hidden."

The spider started to laugh, Arun crossed to Jacob and helped him up, but the spiders had blocked their way out. Arun took Jacobs hand, they had their back to the water now. In a swift motion Arun pushed Jacob into the water and followed him, she cast the bubble back around their heads. Above her spiders crashed into the water, but they couldn't swim down to get her. In the darkness, she clutched Jacob to her, cast the biggest lumos spell she could muster which caused a number of more vile looking creatures to swim and hide, and then she started to search for other ways out. Next to her Jacob swam with wide eyes and a pail face. He never let go of her sleeve.

"Look," he pointed after a while of searching. His eyes were better than hers, and she couldn't see what he was pointing to.

As the got closer Arun stopped swimming, she could see the ghost of the muggle girl she had tortured. Jacob stopped and studied her.

"Can you see her too?"

"No."

Arun nodded. Convinced now that they were in the right place. As they drew closer she saw a large circular hole in the rock with the symbols for mars and jupiter etched into the corners. They swam into a tube, now following the ghost of the muggle girl. Arun looked at Jacob and told him he should go back, but he pointed out that there was no way back, and that was hard to argue with.

"It's going to get frightening," she told Jacob. "Don't panic or the artifact will become more powerful and don't get separated from me."

The tube turned up, directly above them Arun could see a patch of light. But the light kept getting further and further away, and the tunnel grew darker. Ghostly hands, decaying and in tatters grabbed at them and started to drag them down. Jacob made a strangled cry and clutched onto her, and she blasted the hands with a stunning spell which made them disappear. Their heads broke through the surface of the water and they crawled out into a low vault.

"What was that!" Jacob cried.

"That's the power of a Grants Artifact." Arun told him. We need to look for it. We need to fight back whatever it sends to protect itself."

"What will it send?"

Arun didn't bother to answer him, she studied the room, looking for items out of place but the room was blank, so she took Jacob by the wrist and lead him into a corridor. They edged along expecting walls to shrink or the floor to drop away, but nothing happened.

"It can't have been here for long," Arun mutterd as she pushed open the next door and found a pile of corpses.

Next to her, Jacob whimpered and pressed into her side. Arun edged through the bodies her eyes wide, her ears listening for anything out of place, the bodies were mummified, their lips drawn back and their skin was old leather. They looked like they had tried to crawl towards a lectern in the center of the room. On the lectern she saw an american flag. She stopped, heart pounding in her chest. Then she started forward. At the sudden rush of her feet, the corpses reanimated and attacked her. She cast a ring of black fire around her which twisted and shifted like demons, it repelled the corpses but some got through, skin and hair on fire, shrieking like banshees they came, and she screamed curses and jinxes at them to repel them away from her.

Next to her Jacob fought too, stunning spells and knockback jinx's were his preferred magic but it worked. To a point. As she watched a burning corpse grabbed him and dragged him from her side. She heard his screams and she turned herself deaf to them, she was so close to the flag now.

"Help me!"

All the corpses started screaming too, mimicking Jacobs cries.

Arun rushed to the dias, grabbed at the flag and pulled. At once the screaming stopped, the corpses disappeared, and Jacobs sobbing echoed in the darkness. Arun didn't notice. She ran the cloth through her hands, and saw that the horseshoe was wrapped into it, she felt good. Better than good. She felt strong, powerfull, she bit her bottom lip and cast Jacob a furtive glance. "Get up, it's over."

Jacob sat, he looked at her with doubt, "You left me," he whispered.

"I had to."

"You always leave the ones you love," Jacobs voice had changed, it sounded american. She looked at him, shocked, and found a different figure standing in his place.

"What are you?" she demanded.

The figure started to laugh, a deep guttural laugh that made her hair stand on end, and behind him, a host of ghostly people stepped into the chamber. She recognised them instantly and began to back away.

" _Those who seek shall find themselves. Those with the power to claim us will be consumed by us."_

Arun continued to back up, then in a brainwave idea she seperated the horseshoe from the flag and chucked it. "Take it Jacob and follow me!"

Jacob snatched up the horseshoe and pelted after her. It worked, they were not followed and they burst from the vault through a tunnel that came out under a tree. They didn't stop running until they were back by the lake.

"Don't drop it." Arun commanded. "Whilst you're holding it, it won't attack you."

Jacob sat heavily on the wet bank. "This is- this is a Grant's Artifact? What happened when they were together Professor?"

"I don't know. I saw-" she paused. It didn't matter what she saw, it was there to try her. What was frustrating was the knowledge that just possessing them didn't make her the master of them. "All that matters now is that we destroy them. I need to put them somewhere safe until I can- Until I can destroy them."

"What destroys them?"

"I-" Arun ran a hand across her wet hair and she sighed with fustration. "Can I trust you to keep that one secret until I've found a way to contain them safely?"

'Where should I put it?"

"Keep it on you at all times. If you put it anywhere it will become dangerous to you."

Jacob nodded, he looked back towards the spires of Hogwarts, "Where did Freya go?"

"I wiped her memory and sent her back to the castle. She thinks that she had an uneventful detention and then came back. Jacob, I'm not going to wipe your mind. Not whilst you have the horseshoe. You understand, don't you? You understand how important it is to keep this to yourself."

Jacob nodded, his eyes wide in the darkness. "Spiders and monsters and ghosts and curses," he muttered. "It's like something from a storybook."

"It's a story you can't share. Even with Griffin."

"What if she sees me with it? She knows that it's an artifact."

Arun shrugged, "that's your problem. I'll be as quick as I can to find a container. If Dumbledore talks to you don't look him in the eye."

Jacob looked up, "Can't we trust him?"

"Him least of all."

Jacobs mouth formed an O, Arun realised she had said the worst possible thing.

"He's headmaster, he has a duty of care to the school and his pupils, and he would have to report the finds to the ministry and as soon as he does that the ministry would confiscate them and then they would fall into the wrong hands. We have to protect them."

Jacob nodded, he looked a little more confident. Arun dried him off with a heating spell, then did herself too. "You did good today, kid," she'd heard that in a muggle movie, it seemed fitting.


	20. Chapter 20

The box of many places.

When Arun arrived in her apartment she found both Professor Snape and Professor Dumbledore standing by her fire. The Oran Spike was missing.

"Where is it," Arun demanded.

"I could ask you the same," Dumbledore retorted. "The spiders reported to Hagrid that a professor fitting your description was found in the vault, you had a student with you, and the artefacts are gone."

"Let me ask you this Professor, what kind of idiot stores them together?"

Snape hissed air through his teeth and turned away from her.

"Don't start feeling upset because I went off without you Sev."

"Be kind to Severus, he's trying to help you."

"Don't lecture me, professor, you've made this hard from the start."

"Intentionally. I hoped you would see my offer of a job as sincere, and would be able to trust me to deal with the artefacts."

"You've done so well with that, haven't you? How many students were attacked how many teachers?" she jabbed her thumb in the direction of Severus.

"To be honest, you have fared little better yourself."

"Do you realise that Greyback is in the forest? He tried to attack us, but at least I'm satisfied he's not here on the behalf of the Americans. He can be easily swayed though, and I'm certain that they will use his plans to attack you as a cover for their own infiltration."

Dumbledore's mouth went into a very hard line and he seemed to grow a little taller in his anger, "Is that what you were planning? To lead the Americans into the school so you could have all the artefacts in one place and destroy them."

Arun raised an eyebrow, what a good idea. Dumbledore took it as confirmation.

"How dare you! How dare you put us all at risk like that."

"Oh don't be such a hypocrite."

Dumbledore's face pulled down, he looked like he would be sick from disgust. Severus rounded on her. "All the people who want to help you end this and you keep a plan like that to yourself? You really do hold yourself in high esteem, don't you?"

"The more who know, the bigger the problem, Sev, and there _is_ a bigger problem, in that the artefacts can't be stored together. If the Americans do come they won't bring the other four with them."

Dumbledore raised his hand to quiet them all, "What happens when you put the two together?" he asked.

"I saw all the people I had killed. I saw an American man too who I think is the ghost of Grant. The ghosts said something, ' _those who seek shall find themselves. Those with the power to claim us will be consumed by us.'_ I split the artefacts up, it lessened the power of them. I don't expect that a person can harness their power at all unless they have all seven on their person and have given themselves to the curse completely."

Dumbledore ran a hand over his beard and he turned and sat on the sofa. Arun looked Snape dead in the eye and found nothing there. The bastard was blocking her. "Sev," she muttered. "I need the spike back."

"What does this spike do?" Dumbledore asked.

"I have no idea, My sister told me to get it. She's the one who knows how to use it."

"And where is your sister now?"

"I assume taken by the Americans, I haven't heard from her and I should have by now. I've checked with her contacts and I've sent word to her safehouse portraits but nobody's seen her."

Severus went even paler, "You said nothing of this to me?"

"After overhearing you two plotting the other night, of course I haven't," Arun spat.

Dumbledore steepled his fingers, Snape snarled and walked to the other side of the room.

"From this moment forth you are no longer a teacher here, Granville. I suggest you pack that trunk of yours very thoroughly."

Arun put her hands on her hips and practically snarled at Dumbledore, "Helpful as always _Headmaster._ Can you just for once say what you mean and be done with it."

"If you require me to spell it out for you Miss Granville I shall," he turned very cold, his voice was iced water. "Take the spike, take the artefacts, and get out of my school." He stood up and swept past her. "If I find out that you are playing into the hands of the Dark Lord I will hunt you down and kill you myself." his eyes glinted over the top of his glasses, "I'd happily see your bloodline wiped from the face of this earth."

Arundel was going to say something about Dumbledore showing his true colours, but Severus shot her a look of wounded contempt and left with the headmaster. Nobody had given her back the Oran Spike.

She did as she was told, and packed her belongings into her travel trunk, but when it came time to pack the Artefact she started to mutter to herself. "Pack your trunk very carefully, miss Granville," she sneered to herself, and then she sat on her haunches and started to laugh. "Oh," she muttered. "And I bet you've started it for me already haven't you, you old bastard."

She closed the lid of her trunk, tapped it with her hand and then reopened it. Eight locked compartments looked back up at her. She opened the first and found the Oran Spike. The second was empty and in here she placed the flag. "I don't believe it," she muttered.

"You need to be more careful," Severus told her. She hadn't heard him come in. He squatted down next to her and cast lazy eyes over the trunk. "We both know the Dark Lord will return eventually." When she didn't stop packing he put his hands over hers and demanded her attention. "Albus knows it too. I have to keep my cover Arun, regardless of how I feel about you or him or anybody. I have to keep my cover."

"You play your part too well," Arun told him.

"And what about you?" Severus asked. "Come on, don't pretend you are doing this to protect the dark lord or the ministry, why do you still want to fight?"

"They have my sister, Sev. That's reason enough. I've never lied about my intentions to you."

"What will you do now?"

"I'll recover the other two artefacts in my possession, then I will get my sister back."

"How, exactly, are you going to do it?"

Arun opened her mouth, then exhaled in frustration. Severus gave her a card.

"What's this?"

"A place you can stay."

"Where?"

"It's in London, it's called Black Meadow Villa, the Dark Lord used it as a safe house. I'm a secret keeper."

Arun nodded once, "I don't suppose we'll see each other for a little while."

"It's possibly for the best Arun, until this is over I'm just getting in your way. I'm distracting you."

She nodded once and bit at the skin around her nail, "Will you visit me when you can?"

He nodded and handed her a picture of himself, "so we can talk," he said.

"Thank you," she told him and pocketed it.

Once she had found Jacob, taken his artefact, and shrunk her trunk down to the size of a pendant that she could hang around her neck for safety she left the school. She wasn't too sorry to see it go, but it had been nice to be good at something. For all the effort, teaching was quite good fun, well, some bits of it were. There were certain classes she would never miss but others that had been ok to teach. She wondered if they would miss her, but suspected they would get over it quite quickly. When she stepped out into the night the only person who seemed sorry to see her go was Filch, and he practically had a tear in his eye as he helped her up onto a thestral drawn carriage.

"Don't worry Argus, a day will come where you're appreciated like I appreciate you," she smiled at him wondering if he knew that day was today and she didn't appreciate him at all.

"Oh, Miss Granville, the school will be a sadder place without you." He set the cart off down the road and then he hung back and waved as he closed the gates.

Arun sighed, slid down in her seat and watched the trees go past. Something howled and the thestral bucked as dark shadows walked across the road. "We meet again," Fenrir muttered and he moved to the carriage and climbed up next to her.

"I've got what I came for Fenrir, the school's yours for the taking."

The werewolf started to laugh. "Nice of you as that is, after the centurar's attacking us…" he trailed off. "Another time, what was it the Dark Lord told us? Patience and planning will always win the war."

"Perhaps he should have taken his own advice," Arun muttered and Fenrir roared with laughter. "So what do you want?"

"You mentioned something to me when I was going to kill you and those kids. The Americans? And I got to wondering what you meant?"

"The American Society of Black Wizardry," Arun muttered.

"The American Society of Black Wizardry," Fenrir parroted and he slouched back on the coach seat and lit up a cigarette. "What you got going on with them?"

"They are looking to create a storm in a teacup and I'm trying to stop them. I had thoughts that they had enlisted you to create a diversion whilst they stole some artefacts I'm after."

"Did you get your artefacts?"

Arun looked at him, at once suspicious again, "No," she told him. "Though I did find out that they have been moved from Hogwarts by Albus Dumbledore and the Ministry. The American's have taken my sister, Fenrir, they wish to stop me from acting against them."

"What will you do?"

"Get my sister back of course." Arun shook the reins of the cart and the thestral began to move along the path again, it was nervous as it moved and shook its head and rolled its eyes. "I'm going to get her back and I'm going to kill every last one of them."

Fenrir sat forward, "Sounds like your taking on the world Arun, but the thing about the world is it's bigger than you. It seems to me like your small group of friends is getting smaller."

"Oh now, don't be so hasty, you forget I have the Death Eaters on my side."

"What's left of em, the good fighters ended up in Azkaban and the rest are the cowards who talk more than they act."

Arun pouted and looked away, he did have a point.

"And what about the rest of your network ahy, bunch of crooks who won't do a thing unless it's got something in it for them. Who'd stab you as soon as look at you for the right price."

"Are you talking about yourself Fenrir?"

He chuckled, "I have morals, I have a vision."

"A world where wizards don't see werewolves and vampires as a disease? There's a problem though, isn't there, that to be accepted you need a food source nobody laments."

Fenrir grunted.

"What do you want from me Fen? I can't offer you a change of world perspective."

"I want to bolster my forces."

"Do you?"

"I want fighters."

"How are you going to get that?" Arun asked, the coach was coming to the edge of the forest, the trees were getting sparse.

"The prison in Albania, the one for dangerous magical criminals, I want to get inside."

"The one near Curraj? Are you crazy?"

"I might well be, but I am a man with a vision and I will play this game out to the end."

Arun sat quiet, there were things in Albania she wished to avoid, her mother for one.

"Seems to me," Fenrir said, "That we have an opportunity here. I aid you in dealing with these Americans and you aid me in my infiltration of the prison."

"Let me think on it," she told him.

"I'd have your answer now or not at all, if it's all the same to you, I need to move from this forest and I would like a direction in which to travel."

"Head to Egypt then," Arun told him. "To Thebes, I'll try and pick up my sister's trail from there."

Fenrir's smile spread across his face like a crack in lava. He held out a hairy hand and shook on it. "What would you do without me, ahy?" he asked.

She apperated from Hogsmeade to London, and she went to the bank first and withdrew the third Grants Artifact. At all times now, she would wear them around her neck. Dumbledore's adaption to her chest had been a good one, bending space to house the artefacts in different places meant that they didn't react to each other, even though they were stored in the same box. As she left the bank vault the head goblin took her to one side. "Miss Granville, I must inform you, A man was here yesterday who said he was here to collect a package from your vault. I denied him, but later three witches broke into the vaults. Your defences got them, we found their bodies this morning. Whatever you are storing, please take it away."

"Consider it done," Arun told him. "This man, what did he look like?"

"Tall, middle age spread, had a sly look to his face, eyes were small and close together and his chin was large. He had cowboy boots on and an American accent."

So Harold Kirk was in London again. Most likely he had people watching the bank still, waiting for her to come out. "Do you have another exit? I think I may be walking into a trap."

"It's highly irregular to let customers use it, but since you bring us so much custom I will make an allowance."

"Thank you."

The goblin took her into the back rooms of the bank, where she saw a number of barbers chairs. "Have a seat, Miss Granville," he motioned for her to sit and she did as she was told. "This will bring you out into Bakers Street near a goblin bar called the Portkey and Coin. From there you can make your way unobserved. I do wish you good fortune, let me know if you are looking for work in the future, I hear there are new tombs in Thebes just opened up."

Arun cast him a sidelong look, but before she could ask him about Thebes he pulled a lever on the side of the chair and she tipped upside down and fell out the sky into a courtyard by the Portkey and Coin. As soon as she landed she left on foot, and ducked into the Prince Clarence, a muggle pub. She still had her robes on, the muggles turned to look at her as she crossed the bar and went into the toilet, where she opened her travel case, climbed inside and changed into muggle clothes, she also took muggle money, two hundred pounds of it, and up she climbed again. She got herself food, then she took the tube back to the Leaky Caldron where she transfigured herself into a wall and then watched the comings and goings of the patrons.

The hours ticked by slowly, the night turned to day and by lunchtime Arundel was ready to give up. As she was contemplating her next steps Hix walked out of the pub flanked by two men, one with a cowboy hat on, and one who was so wide his arms didn't sit flush to his body. They did not look happy. She tried to enhance her hearing but as soon as she did the noise of London became so deafening that she had to stop. Instead, when they walked away on foot, Arun followed at a distance.

They walked to an industrial part of London near the docks where they were met by a number of reinforcements. Arun hid in the shadows, watching as Hix gave a report to another man she recognised, Mr Lace, who was older with delicate features and a thin pointed nose. He was the only one in wizards clothes, everybody else looked like they had watched one of those late seventies American dramas about secret service cops. It was dull grey Britain and they had sunglasses on. She could count about twenty of them by the docks, so she assumed that there were more elsewhere. Maybe she would be fighting fifty of them in total. She edged as close as she could go, but it wasn't close enough, and she could only hear their voices when the wind blew in her direction.

"She went in…"

The wind changed, she waited.

"How'dy know she ain't still down there Hix?" Lace's accent was Texas oil baron, if he wasn't so dangerous it would have been comical.

"...come out….go…..ground….use the…"

Arun frowned, she couldn't decipher that at all.

Lace looked angry but whatever he said next was lost to her.

"And the bait?" Hix asked.

"We have to find the damn woman first to set the trap Hix."

"Let's use the Malfoys, sir, I keep tellin ya, they might not trust us but they will pass on a message sure as shit."

"The Malfoys are a old pureblood family, we will not disrespect them without good cause. Now, Hix, get your men sniffing her out. She's in London and I want her run out."

Hix nodded, "Very good sir." He turned to leave, but Lace held out a thin hand and stopped him.

"Are they secure?"

"Yes, and well guarded in key locations around that dry as shit city. Ain't nobody cracking them 'jyptian tombs," Hix laughed, Lace nodded and waved his hand in the air. His entourage climbed back into cars and the car's disappeared. Arun saw, as they left, that they were covered in yellow dust. She watched Hix spit on the ground then turn to the remaining group of men. "Get over to Camden and shake down those Rats. You, go back to the Caldron and keep an eye on Diagon Alley, pay the goblins and Borgen and Burke's a proper visit. You're on the ministry, and you five and I will head back to Hogsmeade then on to the Malfoys anyway. She ain't getting away from us. You see her, you try and take her alive, but if you have to kill her don't hold back. It's the artefacts we want not the girl."

After that Arun slipped away, she took the tube to Hampstead Heath and ducked into a corner shop where she brought gin, beer, a box of cereal, some milk and teabags, some ham, bread, tomatoes, eggs, salad and noodles. She wasn't very good at shopping. She asked the man in the shop how to get to Parliament Hill and was given good directions. Then she walked to the very end of the road, where Black Meadow Villa materialised in front of her, the last house on Parliament Hill.

She took the steps up to the front of the red brick house two at a time and found the front door unlocked. That wasn't surprising, only people who knew the house existed could get into it. True to the Death Eater fashion, the house was painted like a dark Victorian parlour, with green and black walls hung with tapestries. As she walked through the house drinking neat gin, the lights and fireplaces sprang into life. She found a sitting room, dining room and kitchen, a library and a study on the ground floor, and then upstairs six bedrooms and three bathrooms. As far as safehouses went, this was a nicer one. She chose a bedroom, the most impressive one with the four poster bed and before she got comfortable for the night she put the picture of Severus out on her bedside table. The painting shifted, blinked at her and sighed.

"What do you want?"

"I've been waiting for hours, hang on," the portrait went blank, and then the real Severus looked out at her. "Why did it take such a long time for you to get here?"

"Hi Severus, good to see you too."

"It's Friday night, it's nearly teatime," Severus complained. "What happened?"

"I was seen going into Gringotts, I was tipped off by the Goblins who helped me escape, and then I doubled back and followed them. It was Hix. I followed him to a raundaveaus with Lace from the American Society. They do have my sister and they are planning to set up a meet to exchange the Artifacts for her. She's in Thebes, either that or somewhere dry in America. But, I know Amber was in Thebes when they took her... so…" she left the assumption hanging and she fished around in her bag for the gin and her cigarettes. She took a swig neet and winced as it burned it's way down then lit a cigarette as a chaser, then had another swig of gin as a chaser for the cigarette. Severus blinked through the painting at her.

"We can use this- Hix will contact the Malfoys once he's finished beating up my other contacts. Lace has ordered him to be respectful to the Malfoys- but that gives me a few days, doesn't it? A few days to come up with a way to fuck them." She took another swig and Severus scratched the back of his neck and didn't look too happy.

"There was about twenty-five of them today, I reckon there's around fifty in total if you count the ones in Thebes too, I need to take them out quickly, maybe I don't need to take anybody out- I could just-" she swigged again. "There must be a stealthier way, right?" she noticed how Snape looked away from her, as if he were ashamed. "What?" she snapped. "Don't you approve?" she waved the bottle at him and took another, defiant, swig then leaned in closer. "I got more tobacco too," she told him and waggled her eyebrows and took a long drag on her cigarette.

"Arun-" Snape started. Then he took a deep breath and looked directly at her. "Do what you need to do but don't make any plans tonight please. You sound-" he breathed through his nose. "You sound unhappy."

"I sound unhappy," she echoed slowly. "What makes you say that?"

"Nead I point out that you are drinking and talking about killing people like you are excited. Your eyes look like the Dark Lord used to look when he felt he had been insulted."

"I am excited. I'm excited to get my sister back and I'm excited to get the artefacts and kill those bastards who are trying to get me."

"You think you can take on fifty of them alone do you?"

"I don't have to take out fifty. I have to take out one, Mr Lace, and the rest will fall away." She waved her fingers at the painting as if they were raindrops.

"You need to be objective, you've seen too much action in too short a time."

Arun's jaw tensed, "Got Albus sitting next to you, do you?"

"Don't start. I'm this close to coming to you."

She leaned in, "That a threat, is it?"

Severus nodded to himself and his painting went black.

"Sev?" she asked. There was no reply.

A moment later her fire flared green and Snape strode out of the fireplace and he took the bottle from her and chucked it into the flames.

"Well, that's a little dramatic don't you think?" Arun protested.

He grabbed her and drew her into a tight hug, resting his head on top of hers. At first, she felt angry with him, but after a few moments her knees went weak and an overwhelming frustration washed over her. He did nothing other than hold her but the effect was shattering. In under a minute she was a crying mess and Severus took her over to the bed and he sat her down on the side of it and held her as she cried. After a little while he helped her undress and put her to bed, and a little while after that he brought her a hot water bottle and a sleeping draft. Before she took it she told him everything that had happened, from the rade on the ministry of magic to finding the vaults. If Severus was surprised by how busy she had been he didn't show it but he did stay with her as she fell asleep.


	21. Chapter 21

Black Meadow Vila

Severus wasn't in bed with her when she woke up. Sunlight streamed through cracks in heavy curtains and fell across the room. It lit up the foot of her bed, a line across the floor and over by the fireplace too. She got up, opened the curtains and looked out over an overgrown garden and across to the park where a number of muggles were running or walking their dogs. Her head ached, her eyes felt dry and she remembered the night before with shame. What a mess, she reprimanded herself, It was the weekend but with any luck Severus would have gone back to Hogwarts and she wouldn't have to face him until she felt better.

She headed to the bathroom without getting dressed and turned the taps on the bath, for a little while the water ran brown until the old pipes cleared and once they had she put the stopper in the bath and waited on the side of it, mixing the water with her hand. Forty minutes later, when her skin was so pruned she couldn't stay in any longer, she got out and pulled a towel around herself. She vanished the dirt off of her teeth, realising that a toothbrush would have been a good idea when she stopped at the muggle shop and went back into her room. She opened her travel trunk, which was on the side of her bed and climbed into it, found new clothes (the usual overlarge jumper and legging) and then she made her way downstairs.

"Did you manage to wash away all your sins? You took long enough."

Arun stopped by the kitchen door and turned on her heal, "Oh, I thought you'd gone?"

"Sorry to...disappoint you." He shot her a thin smile and waved a copy of the Daily Prophet at her.

"Did anybody see you?" she asked as she took it from him.

"I'm a master of disguise," Snape told her. "Nobody saw me, I got an owl to deliver the prophet and I went shopping with muggle money."

"You've done the potions quiz already?" she complained.

"You need to get up early if you want to beat me," he came round the table.

"According to Kadora Hartborn you don't mind a good beating."

Severus laughed and he ran his hands around her waist and kissed her. "I think you will find it's the other way around."

"Oh, so you were with her?"

Severus kissed her neck in response, and crinkled his nose when her wet hair tiggled him, "That's cold."

Arun kissed him, drawing him in closer to her but something was burning and she broke away from him and looked over to the stove, "Are you trying to cook?"

"Trying? I'm a potions master, I don't try...I do."

"Well do try harder, you're burning something."

Severus turned away from her and studied the bacon cooking under the grill, "It's fine, don't you like it crispy?"

"There's crispy and there's obliterated."

"So particular, Granville," he muttered as he pulled it out. "Can you open that bag on the table? There's buns in there that need buttering, I need to turn these eggs."

"Did my rassions not pass muster?" she asked as she pulled the freshly baked buns out of the brown paper bag, with a flick of her hand they halved themselves and a knife flew from a draw and spread butter on to them. From the bag, some rocket landed on the buns, and then tomato sauce marched out and squirted itself over them.

"You bought two tomatoes and some noodles and alcohol. What on earth was I supposed to do with that?"

Arun floated the buns onto two plates and watched them journey across to Severus who was ready with the bacon and eggs. With a flick of his wand Severus put the kettle onto the hob and then he took his bun and bit down on it. "Perfect," he told her.

She bit into hers, held his eye contact for a moment and shrugged, "S-ok."

"Don't pretend to be unimpressed," he told her, waving the kettle off of the side where it had started to whistle. It poured them two cups of tea and he levitated them out of the room. She followed with the prophet under her arm and the bun on the plate. Severus had the fire going and they sank into chairs and ate without saying much.

When Arun was finished she put the plate on the floor and picked up her tea, "Thank you for coming over."

"It's not like you gave me much choice."

"I don't know why you were so worried, I was fine."

"Yes," he raised his eyebrows, "I could see that."

Arun studied him over the rim of her teacup. "When do you have to go back?"

"Tomorrow morning at the latest. I've asked Lucius and Narcissa to come over."

"To do what? Child-mind me?"

Severus gave her the same look he gave his students, she huffed and sat back. "I'm going to Thebes."

"You said."

"As soon as I have a plan."

"You said that too."

"I don't expect you to come with me."

"That's good because I won't be."

"Good."

Severus snorted a laugh, "What's a weekend going to change? The Malfoys are waiting for the Americans to contact them, just relax until then. They won't find you here and your sister isn't going to be killed until they have used her as bait."

"You tell me to relax when they could be doing anything to her."

"Doing _anything_ to her would be foolish."

Arun sipped her tea again, and turned her eyes from Severus to the fire he had built. "What would you do?" she asked. "I can't ask the Death Eaters to help me. I can't ask the Ministry to help, Dumbledore has helped enough. The rest of my friends are scroungers and dealers like me. I've got to go to Luxor, to Thebes, and the rest is...well...I'll work it out from there."

"The Malfoys will help you."

"They have a son now."

Severus caught her eye, Arun thought about baby Draco and didn't let him see her deal with Fenrir.

"You shouldn't act until you know what they want to do to trap you."

"Really?" Arun snapped. "This would be the best time, whilst they still think I'm in England and they have lower defences. If your under attack, Severus, keep moving."

Snape looked away, sighed and stood up. "Are you still hungry? I am."

"A little."

"I'll make us something else," he left her by the fire, it was clear he didn't want her to follow him. She slid down in her chair until her chin rested on her chest and then she closed her eyes. What was she gaining from staying still apart from allowing Fenrir the chance to get to Luxor first? How would she get there? Apparition and the Flu network were watched and flying that distance would be uncomfortable to say the least. She would have to make a portkey undetected, which meant she would first have to mask her magical signature from the ministry, that shouldn't be too hard from this house, as no ministry officials had its location, but the connection to Luxor would be detected. They wouldn't be able to track who had cast the magic but as soon as she came through without a scheduled arrival the customs wizards would be on her in a flash. Maybe she could use her sister's painting, even though Amber wasn't there. The room was most likely compromised, if she were one of the Americans she would keep a lookout on the place. Whatever she did, she would need to do it quickly.

Severus came back into the room, he lent over and kissed her on the forehead, then he dropped an apple into her lap and went to his own chair. "Are you going to read the Prophet or not?" he asked, seeing how she had one foot on top of it. "I've still got the Pink Magic section to study."

Arun picked it up and chucked it at him, "Thinking of changing your hair Sev?" she asked. "Maybe I'll turn mine ginger."

Snape didn't find that funny. He chose not to react to her, and he took the newspaper and thumbed the pages until he found the section he hadn't read yet. Arun chucked the apple into the air and made it levitate. It spun around the room flying over and under furniture then she bewitched it to avoid her and started to shoot at it, aiming her finger like a muggle gun.

"Will you stop," Snape snapped. "Are you intentionally acting like a child?"

"You're keeping me like a prisoner."

He folded the paper and let it drop into his lap. "You are free to leave whenever you want. I presume to suggest a course of action, I do not insist you follow it."

"I just want you to-" Arun paused. Her voice faltered. "To…"

Severus sat forward, "What?"

"I want this," she motioned around the room. Snape blinked, he seemed surprised. "I want to be bored with you. I want to get old and fat and laugh about the Prophet's Pink Magic section and annoy you with floating apples. I want to wake up with my head on your chest and laugh at your sleepy morning face."

"We do all those things, we've just done _all_ those things."

"Yes, in a safehouse whilst my friends are tortured for my location and my sister is held prisoner by a bunch of Americans who want to create their, what did Narcissa call it?"

Severus rested his head on the back of his chair and looked at her down his nose. "Las Vegas Voldemort." He cleared his throat, "What's wrong Arun? Has Dumbledore giving you a job affect you so badly?"

"He had no right to medal with my life like that."

"It's what he does. Albus' weakness is also his greatest strength; he always sees the best in people."

"He can't see me."

"He wants to; you seem determined to prove him wrong."

"I don't see how," Arun grumbled.

"What do you think happened? What story are you telling yourself?"

Arun shrugged. She didn't see it mattered, Severus would just take the headmasters side anyway.

He folded up the paper and walked across the room to sit next to her. She raised her legs so they rested on his lap."Oh, let me see," Snape's eyes had a cruel glint, "You contacted Albus and told him you couldn't bare to be apart from me. You'd seen the error of your ways whilst in Egypt and you begged him to give you a job where you could be with me again."

"Ha ha Severus Snape," Arun kicked him. "What did he say?"

"I asked him to give you a chance. I told him you could be trusted."

Arun's smile fell. "Do you feel like I let you down?"

Severus regarded her, "What story are you telling yourself?" he asked again.

"I contacted the Aura's to sell them the artefact, I thought that if they had it then it would be their problem and they could take on the Americans. I went to Mad-eye but he wasn't biting then Dumbledore turns up and offers me a job but refuses to buy the artefact. I wasn't going to take the job until you told me about the hauntings. I suppose that was his plan too wasn't it? To get me and my artefact to Hogwarts where all three would be 'safe.' Except...well...I decided to destroy them for good, didn't I? I came with my own agenda."

"If you had just swallowed your pride…"

"It wasn't about pride, Severus. I will not side against my uncle and my friends. In refusing to buy it from me that's exactly what they are doing, exposing me."

"The Dark Lord is supposed to be dead," he muttered.

"Well he's not, is he? The Potter boy lived, and the Dark Lord's out there somewhere biding his time until he's strong enough to return. When he returns I do not intend to be grovelling. To either side."

Severus ran his hand down her leg, "I don't want to lose you. I've lost enough through my own folly."

"Are you talking about Lily?"

"I made a choice. I think I feel so awful because I had a choice to be with her and I was too blinkered. You know, I did love her, I always will, but I chose the Dark Lord. She waited, she wanted me and I was blinkered. It was only once I chose the Dark Lord that she left me behind. Potter was a rebound."

"You're talking about childhood love. You're talking about a friendship formed when you were what? Fifteen. How old were you when you lost your virginity to her?"

Snape didn't seem too concerned that she asked, he wasn't ashamed. "Eleven."

"That's really young."

"Yeah." He bit the inside of his lip, "We carried on sleeping together until we were fifteen. We kept it secret. I knew if anybody found out she would have been be bullied, I tried to get her to be friends with my friends but every day she was in Gryffindor her views and mine grew apart. There came a time when she asked me to choose, and I turned from her. I knew, as soon as I did it that it was the wrong thing to do, but from that point on she and I lived different lives. I never stopped caring for her though, even though I moved on. She was more like family to me than my own parents. The only person I shared good memories with before Hogwarts. I never wanted anything bad to happen to her and when it did it was my fault. That was the breaking point for me. That's when I…" he stopped talking and he studied Arun as if he was suspicious of her. "Am I safe saying this to you?" he asked.

"You mean, will I tell my uncle if he comes back that you really do work for Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix? No, I won't."

"Swear on it, make an oath with me."

Arun noticed that Severus's other hand had gone close to his wand. She held out her hand and with her other, she used a cutting spell to slice her palm open. Severus seemed to relax, then he did the same. They grasped hands together and Severus tapped his wand across their palms, muttering as he did. From the end of his wand, like golden ribbons, light danced around their hands.

"Thank you," Severus said, then he leaned across to her and kissed her. "Come upstairs."

Severus Snape was not a hairy man, he vanished his body hair, not all of it, but across his chest and back at least. He had a few tattoos too, thankfully none of them flowers. He worked out as well and his torso was muscular, not ridiculously so, but defined enough for her to trace the contours with her fingertips. She ran her hand across the patterns of ink etched into his skin, over freckles and up across his collarbone, then with the back of her fingers she stroked up his neck, across his jaw and reached his mouth. He smiled, looked down at her and his eyes closed again.

"Do you remember," she asked. "That I said I would make you immune to the Dark Lords snake?"

Severus nodded.

"Well, I have a present for you."

He ran his hand up her arm and took her hand away from his neck. "When did you make the potion?"

"During the week."

He pulled her arm across his body so she would follow and when she was on top of him he tilted his head up and kissed her, "is it my birthday?" he asked.

"It is soon."

"How soon?"

She kissed him again, laughing as she did. "I think you will find it's tomorrow Professor Snape," she did McGonagall's accent.

He pulled a face, "That's unpleasant." They kissed again, "I'd like you to still be here for it."

"The Malfoys haven't been in contact yet," Arun bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. He hissed with pain, ran his hand across his lip then he laughed and kissed her again, more passionately this time. He pulled her onto her back so he was on top of her and he kissed her over and over. "Maybe Kadora Hartborn wasn't lying," she giggled.

"Fuck her."

"You did."

He kissed down her body, and for the first time Arun didn't become so overwhelmed that she forced him to stop. He seemed so happy that she let him continue.

"I love you," he whispered once they were done. "So, so much."

She ran her hands across his hair and laughed. "Severus," she whispered, "What have you done to me?"

After a few moments where they just held each other, Severus rolled off the bed and whistling he went for a shower. Arundel listened to the water splashing and her smile fell. She dressed and put her travel case around her neck and left the potion and picture on the bedside table. Then with a flick of her hand, she conjured paper and a quill and wrote. "I love you too, but this is goodbye. You know what I have to do."

She apperated from the bed to the desert and from the desert, she flew unassisted to the rooftops outside her sister's apartment in Luxor.


	22. Chapter 22

The Snake Charmer

Ambers apartment was in Al Biirat in a muggle neighbourhood but only a stone's throw away from Magical Thebes where the Center for Egyptian Historical Artifacts of Magical Significance, the Egyptian Old Magic Society and the Hidden Library of Wase were housed. Along with the Wase province, where a number of magical people lived and there was access to a selection of magical tombs, which were hidden from muggles but heavily regulated by the Egyptian ministry of magic. Like any city, there were pockets of magical communities all over, Arun knew most of them. Luxor wasn't a new place for her. She'd been curse breaking here for long enough to have a network, but she didn't much care for any of her acquaintances or trust that they wouldn't screw her over for a good opportunity or a sack of gold. And tensions between those who worked for Gringotts and the Egyptian Ministry were taught at the best of times. She wasn't expecting a friendly reception.

There was a lot to do now she was here. First Fenrir needed a place to lie low, as did she. Then she needed to locate the Americans before they found her. She kept watch on the apartment for the best part of a day, but nobody was hanging around outside or keeping watch that she could see and as the sun set she flew across and entered the apartment by unlocking the window.

There were signs of a struggle. Books and clothes strewn everywhere, burn marks on the ceiling and furniture on its side. Arun ignored it all, she was only looking for the portrait, which she found eventually, behind the dresser where it had fallen from the wall.

The painting of her sister looked out at her with a blank expression.

"You ok?" Arun asked.

Painting Amber nodded once, then slid her eyes across to the corner of the room. Arun sent a curse at a brown leather chair, which squealed and turned into a little old man.

"Who are you?" Arun demanded.

"Please!" he hissed in Arabic.

"English," Arundel demanded. "My Arabic is rusty."

"Please!" he said in English. "I have family."

"Tell me why you are here," Arun squatted down opposite him. "What are your orders?"

"I am... I am to wait."

"For what?"

"For you. I am to wait for you and to give you this." he held out his hand. Arun didn't take what was offered.

The man shifted with unease.

"Where are the Americans?" she asked him, taking advantage of his reluctance.

"I...I don't know."

"Who are you meeting with, when would you meet with them?"

"I don't meet. I get given this and told to wait here."

"Where did they give you this?"

The man shivered away from her, "The Crocodile Bazaar, They gave me no choice. They…" he pressed himself into the corner of the room. "They gave me no…"

Arun studied the letter he tried to pass to her. "Open it." she commanded.

"It's for you," he wailed. "It's for you."

"Open it!" she shouted. "Do not make me force you."

But the man shook and gibbered and Arun raised a hand "Cru-"

"Ok!" the little man was crying. "Ok, ok…." He wrenched open the paper, turning his face away as he did. Arun flinched, expecting an explosion, and cast a protective bubble but none came. The gibbering man looked at the paper too but inside was blank, he started to laugh but as he did Arun watched his muscles waste away and the shin shrink on his body, he began to scream, and then he was still. His hands still clenched the paper but the paper held no more clues for her and he had nothing else to give either.

Arun turned away and looked at the painting Amber, "I'm going to leave you here for now," she said to her sister's portrait. "I've got my painting and I'll keep it close, so let me know if anybody comes."

"Right," she said. "They didn't take my wand."

Arun looked across at the painting. "What?"

"I..She left it here. You can use it."

"Where?"

Painting Amber pointed across the room and Arun crossed to the bedroom and found it on the floor under the bed. Arun turned to leave but painting Amber stopped her.

"Arun," she said. "James Deacon. You need to find him."

Arun nodded, and painting Amber disappeared. "Wait, is he good or bad?"

There was no reply.

Arun had a safehouse on a street named Hafeth where the road intersected with the main road which connected a busy roundabout with another main road. She could see the St Mary Church of Luxor from her window. She'd bought the apartment from a muggle when she had still been tomb cracking for Gringotts but she had never listed it with the magical law enforcement of either country and she had stashed muggle money here, along with a number of maps showing the Magical areas of Luxor and the proposed dig sights of a number of tombs. It was quite a nice apartment, the floor was tiled and covered with patterned rugs. The lights hanging from the ceiling were encased in lanterns that cast different colours around the room and the walls were an off yellow, with archways rather than doors. She had a balcony too, though it looked out over the busy road and the smell of petrol fumes wafted in. She stretched the maps out across the table, sweating as she did in the heat of the Egyptian late afternoon sun, a drop of moisture broke away from her hairline and travelled down her nose then fell away, splashing the corner of the map. She craned her head back, feeling under her hair with a hand and bringing it away wet. Outside there was no breeze, and when she wished to any old god listening for even a slight gust of air, only the sun answered by shining brighter. There was a continuous thrum of traffic outside her window, the tooting of car horns and the shouting of vendors and she knew just how thankful she would be for the mosquito net after a good night's sleep here.

It was too hot to work, she still had on leggings and her overly large jumper, it was too warm for the climate, she hadn't washed since being with Severus either and she just felt….sticky…. Arun stood from her bent position over the table, stretched and shrugged out of her clothes, then she crossed to a large teak wardrobe on claw feet and pulled open the door. She smiled, her clothes were still here. She ran her hand across light silks and cotton tops, and loose fitting linen trousers, the kind of horah henry clothing the explorers of the twenties would have put on when they crawled around in the dirt full of imperial fervour and cultural ignorance. There were dresses too, conservative ones. Luxor wasn't like England, if you wanted to blend in here you didn't show skin, even amongst the wizarding community.

She took a towel from the wardrobe and went into the bathroom, she had a cold bath, magicked her hair clean and dressed in light clothing and covered her hair with a headscarf. Then she crossed back to the map and studied it.

Outside the air had the old dry smell of hot evenings. The traffic was still awful and a number of people turned to watch as she left her apartment. Dressed as she was it stopped some of the more persistent locals from pestering her but some people still called out, "Hey pretty girl, where's your husband?" she ignored them for the most part and when she navigated her way across to the Bazaar she was practically deaf to their pestering. She walked the Bazaar without any particular agenda, simply looking out for anybody who looked American. She did find a couple but they were muggles and they were taking tea with a carpet seller. By the time she left it was dark, and she crossed the river and entered a bar called the Grand Wizard of Luxor which hosted Muggle clientele but also had a false wall next to the toilets. She pushed through the wall and descended into a vaulted chamber held up with carved Egyptian pillars. Water fountains littered the floor and pleasant music played. Arun waited for a table and when the waiter came she asked for a private booth.

"Of course, you are in luck, it is quiet tonight."

"Do you still make that lovely Fattah?"

"We do, yes," The waiter showed her across the room, where she scanned the faces to see any that might stand out. Most were locals, some of them she knew. Coming here was a risk, but if she wanted to get anywhere she needed to speak to people. She ducked into a private alcove where seats were carved from the stone then tiled and she lit one of the candles and put it on the outside right corner, it was a sign, basically saying 'I have work.'

After a little while, a few men walked past and cast her an interested look, when they saw it wasn't somebody they knew they sloped off. Her Fattah came, and she nibbled on succulent pieces of beef whilst she continued to watch the people in the bar and about half an hour into her meal a small man with tanned skin and dark eyes slid into the seat next to her. His skin glistened with sweat and his handlebar moustache was thick black. He wrung his hands and sat forward to talk. "Misses Granville you should not be back here."

"Hello, Amon. it's good to see you too."

"Yes," he hissed. "Yes very lovely, welcome back, now go home."

She chuckled and ignored him.

"You are in danger Misses."

"I'm always in danger."

"Big danger. Too big. Bad people in Egypt at the moment."

"What have you heard?" She asked.

Amon leaned in, then he leaned away and looked around the bar. "I hear things. I hear things about curses and dark wizards and lots of people looking for a girl called Arundel."

"What people? Where are they looking, who do they have working for them?"

"Ehhh," Amon drew his shoulders up to his ears. "I don't know names Misses. I know rumours."

Arun leant in. "Do you know the name James Deacon?"

Amon nodded, "This man, yes, I have worked for him before."

"Can you set up a meeting?"

Amon hissed through his teeth, "Well, you know…"

Arun put money down between them.

"It's dangerous times misses. You are a dangerous woman."

She put half as much again on top of her original price, "And there will be more for you if you bring me news of names and locations of any americans in Luxor, specifically ones guarding or working on tombs."

Amon's teeth were white as pearls as he eyed the money. "I like you misses Granville."

"If you sell me out to them I will kill you and your family Amon, that's not a threat that's a promise."

Amon's smile fell. Arun looked him dead in the eye, she saw his house, his street and the faces of his family and she described them back to him in great detail.

"I…yes...I… You can trust me Miss Granville."

"I will know as soon as you betray me."

He nodded, his eyes shifting with nervousness.

"I will be at the obelisk at noon tomorrow. Get James to wear a flower in his jacket pocket so I know who he is."

Amon took the money and slid away and Arun got out of there quickly too. Hanging around for longer was just inviting company.

She walked back to her flat, keeping an eye out for anybody who took too much or too little interest in her. Once home she opened her travel trunk and climbed in, then she found her painting and studied her sister's portrait, "Anything?"

"Nothing."

"I need a disguise," she muttered.

"Going 'native'"

"I think that's racist. But, yes, it's going to take me most of the night to perfect this transfiguration, isn't it?"

"You're good at wandless transfiguration though."

"Not _that_ good."

"Then it's a learning experience."

Arundel grumbled and sat infront of her mirror, "right," she sighed…. "Let the torture begin."

Luxor temple was packed full of tourists, from her seat on the floor by the Obelisk she could see a wide sweep from the nile river on her left to the city on her right. The trees looked like large rounded fans. She watched with a practised eye how the muggles on the make dodged and weaved between the tourists selling and pestering them, pressuring them into buying something from them or accepting them as guides. Nobody pestered her today, She was an Egyptian man, and would be until she painfully turned herself back. It had taken her hours to remodel herself, changing her bones, hair and skin. She sat with a pack of cigarettes and a spread of bracelets in front of her and she just sat and watched. People walked past and looked politely interested but not so much that they wanted to buy anything. She sweated, brushed flies away from her face and wished that she had asked James Deacon to come at ten, or earlier when it wasn't so damn hot.

She spotted the sunglasses and white cotton suit of the Americans before she ever found James Deacon. Once she had spotted one she saw others. Five in total milled around in the square, taking photos and observing the crowd, pretending to look at the sights. Had Amon betrayed her? There were plenty of people in the bar last night on the payroll of the Americans who would have been looking out for her.

Amon appeared in the square from the direction of the shops, he walked past her without even looking at her and she made no move to identify herself as the Americans had seen him too. They made for him, he got spooked and ran, and three of them followed. On the other side of the square a man with a crew cut, with chinos and a white shirt flinched, his hand flicking to his pocket, then relaxed when he saw that the Americans were not after him. Arun studied him, there was no flower in his pocket, but there was a British poppy badge on his lapel. She took up a tray of bracelets and made her way across to him.

"Imshi," he told her. "Go away." His jaw was carved from marble, with a dimple in the middle and his face was tanned golden from being in the sun so long. Arun remembered Amber telling her that she would 'slide off her seat sideways' for him. Which annoyed her, because, attractive as he was, she wasn't sliding anywhere.

"You want to buy one of these," she told him. She hadn't bothered to change her voice.

He looked at her as if for the first time, "Oh."

"Amon was made."

"I saw."

"Good idea to come in separately."

"I know," he was American too, but she couldn't place the accent. "So how much?" he asked her.

She held up the bracelets "Ten US Dollars"

"Ten!" he spat, and they watched one of the Americans stroll past them without paying them much attention. "Way too much. I'll give you one."

"Fine. Meet me in twenty minutes and we'll take the Local Ferry. Go be a tourist."

He paid her a dollar and took a bracelet then he wandered away into the temple and Arun returned to her spot, then, when the Americans weren't looking she packed it up by hand, and started to make her way towards the Nile. It stunk by the water's edge and as she queued for the local ferry she put her bag of sellables down by a bin and they turned into cockroaches and scuttled away. A little later Deacon appeared, queued up too but the ferry was too packed for them to sit together to talk. He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and motioned with his eyes to the top deck. Arun got up and followed. It was cooler up here, and there was, thankfully, a breeze. There were a few people but nobody who made them worry and they sat together at the front of the boat and smoked.

"I find myself strangely intrigued by Amon's message to me last night. I am by profession a man on the make, so to speak, and I do not make it a habit tender myself to acts of charity. He was most insistent that you do not fall into that category, however, I am yet to be convinced." he took a drag. Arundel stayed silent. "I am a man of some skill, and a man of some knowledge of these here parts, and of those peoples who have a vested interest in the wealth of this fine nation. These are not skills I give freely."

"You want paying, that's fine."

"Oh no, surely you misunderstand me. These are dangerous people you are involved with. A simple financial transaction is not enough to entice me to work with you. I am a man of some self-preservation. I ain't no ye'ha cowboy dropping his coat on the floor because some crossdressing damsel is in distress." he laughed at his own choice of words and turned his head into the wind to cool the sweat beading on his tanned face.

"Clearly."

"And as such a man, I do find that in times like these, certain artefacts are more valuable than others."

"What are you after?"

"Well now, that is a matter of some debate. You see, your sister came up against me most grievous and she took from me that which was not hers to take. I am very aggrieved. Aggrieved to the point that I have had to use my considerable skills to attack and even try to kill your fine sister. And yet, she has eluded me, and proven herself to be a very shrewd operator. In the course of my enterprise against her, I find she is involved in an enterprise of her own, which resulted in her being captured before my business with her was concluded." He offered Arun a cigarette and lit it for her. "Now, surprisingly, I find out that these here men who have taken her are the worst kind of men, and I realise to myself that my chances of reclaiming my stolen effects have diminished somewhat. For, you see, I am a man of integrity and high moral value, and there are some kinds of people in this world I will not parley with."

"What did she take?"

"My notebook and my map."

Arun nodded and looked out across the water. "If I were to find and reclaim these items would you help me?"

"If you were to return them to me, freely, and without a fuss I would consider your sister's debt to me repaid- however that does not mean I will then help you, as I have said before, I am a man not given to acts of charity."

"So you do want money?"

"I happen to know that you have an item in your possession that I would like much more than money."

"Oh?"

"The Oran Spike."

Arun sniffed. "I need it."

"Way I see it, you need your sister back."

"If I give you the spike, the Americans win."

"Just what do you need it for anyways?"

Arun leaned in, "The Americans are trying to resurrect the Dark Lord using the Grants Artefacts."

Deacon didn't look so sure of himself any longer.

"They have four, I have three, and they want to trade my sister for the remaining artefacts."

"Well now," Deacon was momentarily lost for words. "Seems you have yourself a problem."

Arun flicked ash over the side of the boat.

"I tell you what, as I said before I am a man of strong morals and there is nothing I like less in this world than dark wizards. You get me my items back and I will help you, in so far as I am capable, but you give me the spike regardless. I will surly use it when the time comes but it is my payment."

Arun bit her lip, Amber told her to go to this man, even though he had tried to kill her, and that meant something, but she would be giving him her only weapon against the artifacts.

"I would like to know my course of action before I exit this here water transportation. I do not mean to rush, but we are closing in on the other bank and I am not a tardy fellow."

She nodded once, Deacon spat on his hand and held it out to her. She took it, "A pleasure doing business with you. You can find me in Wase at the Sphinx hotel. Room 108. I will be there until tomorrow night, no later."


	23. Chapter 23

The temple of Anubis.

Before Arun even attempted to tackle Deacon's requests she headed to the Jackal King Shrine in a muggle taxi. This was a spot of pilgrimage for werewolves because, as legend had it, the Jackal King was part animal part wizard and ruler of all of Africa and his children populated the whole of Africa and embedded the fighting spirit into his descendants. The shrine was little more than a carved stone in the desert, whether beaten and crumbling into fine yellow sand, but footprints told her something had been here recently. She placed her hands on the shrine " _Hominus nuntium_ " she muttered. The incantation for bewitching an object to carry a personal message. The statue shivered.

"Fenrir Greyback, go to the Temple of Anubis, there is a cave system south of there called the Gateway of the Souls, wait for me there. Be careful not to be spotted, they are here."

She wondered if he would bother to come here, but she knew he wouldn't want to risk staying in the city and the Jackal King was just the kind of story that would appeal to him, one that kept hope alive for such a marginalised group of people. It wasn't unreasonable to assume he was here already; if he had taken muggle transport, wiped the memories of the muggle flight attendants and baggage crews, he could have arrived days ago. She should have worked out a meeting spot with him before she left England. This would have to do for now. She sat by the stone for a moment as she thought about what she would do next, then she headed back into Luxor.

In Al Biirat, Arun entered her sister's apartment and took the painting of Amber. "Do you know where Decon's Notebook and map are?"

"She didn't keep them here," Painting Amber told her. "She kept them at the Old Magic Society in her office. I never went there but her boss was a man called Professor Versu Jabare. He's an archaeologist and alchemist."

"Can I trust him?"

"I don't know. He hasn't called at the flat since she was taken, don't you think that's odd?"

Arun bit her lip, "I'm taking you with me this time."

"Be careful Arun. I haven't seen anybody in the flat but it's worrying that nobody's been to check Leatherface in the corner over there. It's likely they are watching."

Arun shot the mummified corpse a cursory glance and grunted her agreement.

"Maybe they won't attack you, you're still in disguise."

Arun put Portrait Amber into the tiny travel trunk around her neck. When she left she did so cautiously but there was nobody around. She took a side street between two apartment blocks, heading in the direction of Magical Thebes.

The stunning jinx smacked into her from behind, she tripped and broke the jinx with a countercurse uttered without movement then rolled and pulled out her sisters wand to keep the illusion of being somebody else. A shadow formed at the end of the road, who drew a wand and disarmed her with ease. She played along for a moment, jibbering whilst she hurried to change her voice. The shadow came closer and materialized into a woman with deep brown eyes and long dark hair. "If you value your life you will stay still," the woman said, she was American, the cloaking spell she had used marked her as powerful.

"I...yes miss… I mean no harm. I help you yes?" She tried to imitate Amon as close as possible as she cowered.

"Where is she?"

"I...I don't know!"

"Crucio," pain racked Arun's body. She screamed out but retained enough of herself not to lose her disguise or her newly masked voice. All that training had come in very handy. If she wasn't so concentrated on keeping her deception intact, she would have felt quite smug.

"I'll ask again. Where is your master."

"She…" Arun gasped with pain. "She moves around, I meet her at the Luxor Temple."

"Who's working for her?"

"Only locals...she pays us...please...no more!"

"Why are you at the sister's house?"

"She asked….She asked me to get...to see….if..."

The woman aimed her wand in Arun's face, "yes?"

Arun couldn't think of anything. Her lie was about to break apart, she had to give her something to work with.

"Crucio"

Arun screamed again.

"The wand, her sister's wand."

The woman's eyes travelled across to it, laying discarded just out of Arun's reach. "Curious," she muttered. "Did she hope to track her sister using it?"

Arun inwardly cursed herself, if the wand is loyal it will point the way. Just how much wand law had she forgotten? Her sister had intentionally given her a way to track her and she had missed it completely. The woman picked it up and stood a little taller. "Tell your master that should she want to see her sister alive again she must bring all three artefacts to the Temple of Khenti Amentiu before the waxing of the full moon in five days time. Should she fail to do this, her sister will die, publically and painfully-" she leant in, "And slowly too." Before Arun could react the woman apperated.

On her ass in the dirt she hung her head. Just like Amber to be too clever for her. To set a clue too hard for her to follow it. She stayed in the same place for a while, watching to see if anybody else was following her then she made her way to Magical Thebes as quickly as she could whilst still racked with pain from the torture curse. The entrance was hidden just west of the Tomb of the Nobles in Al Asasif. It was invisible to Muggles, but Arun saw a huge opening in the rockface with two towering sphinx sitting either side watching witches and wizards enter. This opening was the gateway to Wase Province of Magical Thebes, a massive subterranean labyrinth of buildings and lakes. She passed through, still looking like the Egyptian man, and made her way unobserved to the Egyptian Old Magic Society.

Magical Thebes was beautiful but claustrophobic and it's lightning was not good. The walls and ceilings were painted with hieroglyphs and hung with lanterns but they didn't eliminate the shadows. Residential streets were close together and the public shopping areas were double height and wider but it was hot and close and people rubbed up against each other. Open fronted shops were carved into rock, and sellers jostled for peoples money and attention. She took the twists and turns of Wase, navigating her way by memory to the Old Magic Society. When she managed to get closer the path opened out into wider streets and higher ceilings and the air was fresher too. Eventually she took a flight of steps down into a wide cavern, five stories high, where the Old Magic Society entrance was carved into one of the faces of the rock. Amber's place of work never failed to impress. The plaza outside was packed with people, most playing near the waterfall that was cascading from the rock face opposite, she looked around but if Americans were here watching the entrance there was no chance of her spying them. They had delivered their message anyway so she expected them to back off and let her make the next move. She crossed the space outside the Old Magic Society and climbed the stairs into the building. The receptionist was a cat, an animagus who stretched and scratched behind her dark grey ear when Arun spoke to her. "I'm looking for Professor Versu Jabare. It's about Amber Granville."

The cat got up and walked away from her, turning every so often to see if she was following. It took her into the depths of the Old Magic Society, past the display cases and artefacts of the public galleries and then down into the depths of the research rooms. She saw glimpses of people studying scrolls and pouring over old maps. The cat turned a corner and paused outside a set of double doors. It looked up at Arun, then with a swish of its tail it turned and walked away. Arun knocked then pushed the door open and a large tanned man with a shock of white hair looked up from a huge glass and blinked at her with surprise.

"Have I not given you people enough?" he asked. "I do not know what else I can give," he said in Arabic.

"What have you given professor?" Arun answered in English, but still with her transfigured accent.

He ran a hand through his hair, "You mock me."

She didn't respond, but she slid the door closed behind her and looked around. "I need to see Amber Granville's study."

The professor nodded. "Yes, yes of course."

"What was she studying."

"Apart from the Grants Artefacts?" the professor asked.

"Yes."

"TheSnake-Eyedd King," his voice was but a whisper.

"Tell me about that," she commanded as she followed the professor down the hall towards her sister's study. The professor looked back at her as if he would ask why, but he saw her face and thought better.

"In the Predynastic Period, during the Naqada II archaeological period, there were a number of God-kings. During this time the Magical societies ruled over muggles and there was no segregation or secrecy about our existence, we were worshiped. The rarest talents were the pharaohs: the families who ruled. And legend had it that one of those ruling lines was King Tutmendis, the Snake Eyed King." he reached an unassuming door and opened it then he went in first. Ambers study was like the inside of Arundel's vault at gringotts, it was a treasure trove of artifacts and paperwork and it was a mess. At first Arun thought she had been robbed, but the professor didn't seem too concerned.

"The Snake Eyed King was said to be able to converse with snakes and commanded an army of deadly vipers. His closest followers were made to undertake a blood ritual which meant that they too gained some of his power, temporally, they used this for strength in battle and during rituals and ceremonies."

Arun started to hunt through the room, first going through the desk, still listening to the professor.

"The king had other powers too, his breath was poisonous, his skin was impervious to magic and shined like snake scales, and he had a thirst for human blood. He was said to be unkillable."

"It sounds like he had a disease."

"Maybe, but legend has it that he was powerful, feared and worshiped in the upper kingdoms."

"Why's he important?" Arun moved from the desktop to the draws.

"There are not many instances of Pastletongue recorded in the ancient world, but many instances of it being necessary for strong magic. It seems that the practice of worshiping Parseltongue changed after the Snake Eyed King and the use of snakes in Egyptian magic rituals became synonymous with powerful and potentially dangerous magic, particularly that of resurrection and rebirth, it stands for kingship and protection too. The Book of the Dead states " _Hail, serpent Amenti who comes from the house of slaughter, I have not defiled the wife of a man._ " My hypothesis is that the history of the Snake Eyed King will give us historical context to Dark Magic and it's properties. It will bridge so many gaps in our understanding of modern magical practices."

"Your hypothesis," Arundel muttered, she was starting to understand. She straightened up and put her hands on her hips, then dropped them, realising how feminine she looked when she did it. "Where are the diary and the map, Professor."

"What?" the professor asked, he licked his tongue across his lips and began to back towards the door. With a wave of her hand it slammed shut. He backed away and drew his wand. "I do not have what you want!" he told her.

"If you value your life and the continuation of your work you will give me the diary and the map. If you don't I'll burn this place to the ground. Do you hear me. Fiendfyre is a specialty of mine."

"You wouldn't…"

"Oh I would," Arun flicked her hand and fire swirled in her palm. "I do wonder how quickly it will destroy…"

He ran his hand down his face.

"Think about all the artifacts housed here, how many will survive Fiendfyre? How much history will be lost."

"You….you wouldn't…."

Arun brought her hand close to the paper on Ambers desk. She watched the colour drain from the professors face.

"Ok!" he cried. "Ok…" and he pulled up his robes and from a pouch around his waist that thankfully covered his genitals, he pulled a map and a book.

"Put them on the table, along with your wand."

He did as he was told.

"Open the book."

He looked at her, the sweat dripping on his brow. He did it and she leaned in and studied english writing, not in Amber's hand, but annotated by it.

"Open the map."

Again, he did what he was asked to do and she saw a huge number of magical tombs some in red, some in blue and some in black.

"Ok, get in the corner of the room and sit down."

"Wh...why?"

"Just do as I say."

He crab crawled to the corner and sank down, covering his face in his hands.

She pointed her finger at him and whispered "obliviate." His eyes clouded and he forgot where he was momentarily. "Professor, I never visited you. You lost the map and the book in a game of cards to a man you have never met before."

He nodded, she stood up and left quickly.

Despite the fact that she had the map and the diary, she was not inclined to give them over to James Deacon without first copying them. She ducked into the darkest alley way she could find and she duplicated both items then stored them away separately. If the map and the book were worth killing for then she definitely wanted a copy. She figured that, should she survive this, and life go on a map of uncracked tombs would see her sitting pretty for a while.

It was too late to eat tea and Arun hadn't eaten anything all day. She felt lightheaded when she knocked on room 108 at the sphinx hotel. James Deacon opened the door to her and looked her up and down. "Well now," he smiled and spoke as he chewed gum. "That is some fine and swift work indeed. Would you like to come in?"

"Not really. I have other places to be."

James looked a little put out, but not, she suspected, as much as he would have been if she was her usual feminine self. "Well that is sad, but if you must be going then I bid you goodnight. We do just have the matter of when and where we will meet again to complete our transaction. Do come in." He stood back from the door, and Arundel walked into his apartment. It was tidy, meticulously so, and he was reading a muggle picture book, _the adventures of Tintin._ He unfolded the map on the second bed and then he opened his notebook and thumbed through it, "My my your sister has been busy."

Arun nodded in reply.

"Do help yourself to food, it is over by the desk."

She looked across to a selection of fruit and she helped herself whilst James studied Ambers annotations to his work. "She is a fine woman, your sister, if she wasnt so damn insufferable I think I might fall madly in love." He snapped the book closed and turned his attention to the map. "Lookie here," he told her. She came and joined him.

"The blue marks are archaeology that is available to the muggles. Red are known sites to the magical community and the black ones are the ones yet to be cracked, some of them are ones that have yet to be confirmed as even being in existence. Now, as a man of my word, and a man of considerable moral standing I have made it my business to work out which of these sites has the pleasure of hosting American's. I do have to wait for results, but I expect a full report by the morning."

"Do you know where they hold my sister?"

"I do not, I confess."

"What about the Temple of Khenti Amentiu?"

"It is not one I considered. Why is it of particular interest?"

Arun told him about the instructions and how she was ambushed earlier in the day. He nodded, stroking his chin as she spoke. "I would be very surprised if they keep her in the same temple they wish to use to bargain."

"Me too, but close by maybe?"

"That is a true leap of faith."

Arun sighed and looked at the map again. "What are my options," she muttered. "Attack the temples with the artifacts to reclaim them whilst systematically locating and rescuing my sister, or go ahead with the swap and somehow...somehow...get the artifacts back too?"

"The first would require extraordinary manpower, the second extraordinary luck. I do not rate either option as successful or productive."

"What would you suggest? Manpower would not be an issue for me."

Deacon thought about if for a moment. "Truly, I must think on it some more. I tell you what Miss Granville. There is a muggle restaurant called the Delta Crocodile on Al Saha street that is highly recommended. Come there tomorrow night, around six, and we will discuss this at far greater length and with more information to back us. You get yourself cleaned up and I'll scrub up too. What'da say?"

"Sure," Arun told him. As long as she had his information she didn't care if they ate at mcdonalds.

She left Magical Thebes and made her way to the Gateway of the Souls cave system. It was a half hour drive outside of Luxor and high up in the dry hills, she had food with her, enough to feed fifty, stashed away in her bottomless bag and she told the muggle driver to go. He looked at her like she was insane but he didn't question her, or care much for her safety, she was a man, and as such did not need the protection of the Taxi Driver. Some things were strikingly different, but she really was missing her old body and intended to transform back as soon as she could.

As she walked up to the cave two dark shadows shifted in the rocks above her and two wands were drawn. "What's your business?" one of them asked.

"I'm here to see Fenrir."

"Who sent you?"

"Arundel Granville."

One of the guards sent a blue flare into the sky and then they waved her through. Fenrir emerged from the cave and snarled, he came closer to her and sniffed her, the threatening werewolf act was so well practiced. "I can smell you Arundel," he told her.

"That time of the month?" she asked, her eyes shooting up to the heavens to check the progress of the moon, it wouldn't be long now until they transformed- just in time to be useless.

Fenrir grumbled. "Nice cave system to choose, at least it's got water."

"I've brought you food."

He nodded, he seemed troubled. "C'mmon."

He lead her inside, where a group of about twenty werewolves sat around a fire. Arun recognised some of them, but one surprised her more than the others. "Remus?"

He looked up, she knew him from school, in Snapes year. Hadn't Fenrir turned him? Why on earth would he join him?

"Do I know you?" he asked. His voice was nasil.

"Yes, but not like," she motioned to her body, "Not like this."

He nodded again and looked back to the fire, she wasn't shocked that the wolves were grumpy, there was only a few days left to the full moon.

Fenrir took her past the fire and into a different cave where he had set balls of glowing light to bounce off the ceiling and rolled out a number of bed mats.

"Remus Lupin joined us in Yorkshire where he'd been working as a muggle window cleaner. He made us a portkey and then we had to run. We got here yesterday. Good idea with the shrine to leave me a message, these caves are easy to defend. Can you change yourself back? I prefer talking to attractive."

"My god Fenrir," Arun complained. "It'll take a while."

"Give me the food to distribute and knock yourself out."

Arun gave him what he wanted, and climbed into her travel trunk to make the transformation back. It took a while, and hurt like hell but eventually her body was back to normal. She crawled out of her trunk, put it back around her neck and went to join the others in the cave.

Lupin looked back up, now he recognised her but when Fenrir started to laugh he dropped his eyes and said nothing.

"That's nicer," he laughed. "That's better, I prefer a bitch to a dog."

"Fenrir, keep that up and i'll turn you into a bitch," Arun growled at him, and a number of the wolfpack sniggered.

Fenrir's smile fell to a sneer, "Funny fucker ain't ya."

"I try, how's the food?"

"Bloody," he smacked his lips. She'd practically brought a whole side of a cow from the butchers, the meat wasn't even cooked, but with five days left until the full moon all the werewolves wanted to eat was red and raw.

She looked around the cave, a few more had turned up for food but not that many, less than he'd had in the forbidden forest. Thirty people in total, most of them sallow looking and scarred from painful transformations. "Thank you for coming to help me," she told them. "Fenrir's told you what's going on?"

"He's said enough," one of the others said, Arun knew her too. She was called Georgina Godrick and she followed Fenrir everywhere. When she transformed into a wolf her hair was thick silver but as a human, she was thin, pale and had deep bags under her eyes. Like Fenrir, she sharpened her nails and her teeth too. "Said you're going to help us in return."

"I am."

Fenrir shifted, "The Americans, what've you learned?"

"There's a lot of them here. They are holding my sister in one temple, and the artifacts in four others. I've got somebody finding out where. They have proposed a trade, my sister for the artifacts on the waxing of the full moon, at this point they would have to bring the four artifacts together. If four different people are holding the artifacts then their power is diminished, put them together and it's catastrophic."

"And all seven can raise an army of the dead."

"Or just resurrect and control one particular dead man, yes."

The werewolf's were quiet as they ate, each seemed in their own world of worry.

"To destroy the artifacts I have a box, which keeps them separate. If I drive a cursebreaker through the box i'm hoping that will be enough. We have to get the artifacts into the box, and get my sister back alive."

"Your precious sister is the weak link here Arundel," Fenrir told her with a growl. "It'd be easier to locate and attack the Americans when they are divided."

"Perhaps, but if we do it that way I will be rescuing my sister at the same time. I won't let her die."

Remus looked up from the fire, he was chewing his steak slowly, studying her. She cast a look in his direction and saw an image of one of his friends dead, eyes open, blankly looking towards the ceiling.

"You don't know where anything is though, do you."

"Not yet."

"Not yet," Fenrir muttered. "Tomorrow Fenrir, I'll know tomorrow," he imitated her voice. "Every day wasted is a day closer to the full moon and if this trade goes down on that day at that time we will be little more use to you than a bunch of rabid dogs."

"What about Wolfsbane?"

"What about it? I can't make it, I can't afford it."

"What if I can get it for you?"

"Then you would need to get it quickly, you have to take it every day for a week leading up to the transformation, we only have five days left."

"Leave it to me."

Arun returned to her travel trunk and she spread a map out on the floor. There was a knock from the door in the ceiling and she went up the stairs and peered out. Remus Lupin looked like a giant from above "Can I come in?" he asked. She pushed the trunk open and as he stepped in he shrank to the size inside. "This is a nice bit of magic," he congratulated her.

"I'm surprised you are here."

"Are you? I may have an intense dislike for Greyback but my dislike for the Dark Lord is far greater. I've lost enough as it is."

She hardly knew him, but she knew enough to see why he wanted to tag along for this fight.

"I knew your sister," he told her.

Arun looked up, "How?"

"She was the one who taught my friends to become animagus. She gave them the process, helped them to be successful with it. She knew what I was and she was kind about it. Even though she was Ravenclaw and even though she was a seventh year when we were so young, she was kind. I'd like to pay her back somehow."

"Then help me with this-" Arun pointed to the map on the floor.

"What is it?"

"The African Ministry of Magic takes a different view on the status of Werewolves. Not a nicer one, mind. They have what they call Kennels, where they forcefully imprison werewolfs during their transformation. They brew Wolfsbane in large quantities which they feed them in the runup."

Lupin blinked, shocked. "What do they do with them for the rest of the time?"

"They keep them in secure communities and force them to work in payment for the wolfsbane."

"That's inhumane."

"They would argue that we are inhumane. They would say that we are leaving a marginalised group of people to starve and live humiliated."

"But free."

Arun nodded. "The closest Kennel is thirty miles west of here in the desert. It's called the Armant Kennels."

Lupin looked over her shoulder at the map again. "Is that a Ministry Military Map?"

"Yup," Arun flashed him a smile. "I occasionally work as a curse breaker for Gringotts, the more you know the better you survive. I stole this about two years ago from the Ministry offices in Cairo, it's proved accurate so far."

"Two years ago I was a mess," Lupin muttered. "Everything was a mess. I remember a lot of people hated you, called you a traitor, constantly on the make. They said you would sell your own mother for the right price."

"It's not easy to remain neutral, walking that line didn't make me many friends." She would happily sell her mother too.

"I bet."

"But it did keep me safe, and in pocket."

Lupin didn't like that, but he said nothing and returned to the map. "You want to hit it tonight?"

"Yeah. I do."


	24. Chapter 24

The raid on the Armant Kennels

When Arundel used unassisted flight carrying another person she had to use a whole host of other spells to make it work. Other people were impossibly heavy and when wind chill and air resistance was taken into account it became exhausting and dangerous. Arun had spent months working out how to do it, practising with her sister once bags of flower, pillowcases and later, a friends dog, had all been successful. The easiest way was to give the other person a piggyback. The werewolf's enjoyed watching Lupin clamber onto Arun's back.

"Don't be sick on me," she told him.

"I give no guarantees," he told her.

"Have you ever done this before?"

"No."

"Wish us luck," she told Fenrir with a smile. The werewolf snarled and waved a hand at her.

"Don't mess this up."

She launched herself into the air and shot away into the Western Desert. On her back, Lupin clenched tightly but he was laughing not screaming. She landed a little later about a mile away from the Armant Kennels. At night the stars above the Western Desert looked like clouds of shimmering glitter dust. Lupin fell off her back and rolled on the floor.

"My god that was fun!" he sighed.

"Careful, scorpions," she told him, and he got up pretty quickly after that.

"Where're the Kennels?"

She pointed into the darkness. "So, this is what we are going to do…."

The Kennels were not well guarded, there were only four guards on turrets and a keeper of the keys who locked the werewolf's in at night. The werewolf's had a hex put on them to stop them appariting and the idea were that they would dehydrate in the desert if they ran before they ever reached civilisation. Arun used a spell of her own creation, a variation of the Bombarda spell to blow a section of the wall to smithereens. She whooped as rubble was shot into the air and laughed as the alarms started to sound, the guards ran for her and she kept them occupied as Lupin snuck in over the gates and made for the storerooms. She killed one guard, which upset the others and she enjoyed fending them off, buying for time as Lupin found the Wolfsbane. He was taking too long, she used a rope coil spell and tied the guards together then she took their wands with a flick of her hand. Another flick and they were wrenched into the air and the rope coiled around a beam to suspend them. She ran into the compound in search of Lupin. A series of bangs and fizzes and a flash of lightning came from the main building and Arun veered to the right and found Lupin engaged in a fierce battle with a surprisingly adept wizard. She skidded to a stop next to Lupin and she blocked a curse Lupin was about to miss and sent back a counterattack of her own which he swiped away. "We don't have time for this!" she shouted at Lupin as they dived out the way when he sent arrows shooting from the end of his wand.

"What do you suggest…"

Arun rolled out, used an air shield to deflect the next volley of attacks and then she pulled her hands wide apart, "Succido" she screamed and brought her hands together. Her spell shot a wave of white air across the room, it hit the man directly in the chest, and the effect it had on him was horrific. He shrunk from the navel outwards, like he was sucked into a black hole. His scream was gut-wrenching and he crumbled to the floor, folding in on himself until he looked like an ovarian cyst.

"Oh my god!" Lupin cried.

"Don't worry, it's reversible," Arun snapped.

He covered his mouth with his hand.

"Come on!"

The cyst man was crawling away using a tiny crooked arm. Lupin stood gawping. Arun grabbed him, "There will be more, that alarm will be going off at the ministry too."

Lupin ran his tongue over his teeth and nodded and they sprinted down a corridor looking for the wolfsbane.

Eventually, they found it in a locked storeroom by the kitchens. Arun held her bag open whilst Lupin made the bottles fly inside, they cleared out the whole reserve and then sprinted back the way they came. Shouting to their left made them realise the ministry had turned up. Somebody sent a hex over their heads that took out a chunk of the wall behind them. The ministry was not just shooting to stun. As soon as they were out of the buildings Arun grabbed Lupin and launched them into the sky.

When they touched down at the camp Lupin stumbled away from her, "I hoped the stories were false Arundel," he shouted. "I had hoped you were not the person they said you were."

"You cost us time Lupin!" Arun shouted back. "Would you rather I killed him?"

"But why _that?"_ he spat. "Christ Arun! That was...it was horrific."

Fenrir stood by the fire with a wide grin, he was enjoying the show immensely.

Arun chucked her hands up in frustration. "You didn't need to come," she told him. "You wanted to be the hero."

She unhooked the bag from her belt and gave it to Fenrir then she stormed across to Lupin and dragged him away from everybody so they had privacy. "Let's get one thing very clear Lupin," she hissed. "A lot of my spells look awful but they are all show. Do you think I would be safe amongst fucking death eaters if I disarmed people and turned them into fucking daisies? That spell is a variation of a transfiguration charm. It's painless but it looks horrific. It's all bang and no bite."

Lupin dropped his eyes, "okay," he said quietly.

"Okay?"

He nodded and turned away. "Okay," he said again.

Arun stayed with the werewolves that night. Fenrir liked to tell stories and tonight he told stories about the ancient Egyptians who worshipped werewolves and could transform at will and keep their minds when they did it. Strong and proud werewolves who had packs of loyal dogs who ran with them. Arun watched the others listen to him like he was their priest, and realised just how easily desperate people clung to the smallest glimmer of hope when they felt like all was lost. How did it get to this? She wondered. How easily people are lead and how frightening it is to be alone in this world. Everybody needs friends.

In the early hours of the morning, Arun rolled out a matt and slept with everybody else in the second cavern. Fenrir lay down next to her, not close enough for him to touch her, but close enough that they could speak. "Arun," he said quietly, "this may not work. In five days time when the moon is full my kind will transform and we will become mindless. If your sister is in the wrong place at the wrong time she may not survive."

"If she turns…"

"I'm not talking about her becoming one of us, I'm talking about her throat being ripped out."

"I know."

"Is that so much better than the alternative?"

"Yes."

Fenrir was quiet for a moment, "You humble me."

"Why?"

"You are the only person I have met who does not pity us, and does not hate us."

"I both pity and hate you Fenrir," Arun told him with a laugh.

"Do you think my people have more of a chance with the Dark Lord? Some people say he's not dead, just biding his time to return."

Arun was quiet for a moment, "With him, sure," she said. "But not with the Death Eaters, you know they are separate from him, right? They want different things. He's a totem for them."

"But under them, we would be powerful, we would be listened to."

"More so than the Moodbloods," Arun hissed back, her teeth shining white. "And the muggles would be your food." She gnashed her teeth, and though she was joking she knew that was exactly what Fenrir wanted, to claw back some dignity by offering up others in his place. Desperation at its finest. "Tomorrow Fenrir, you need to move from here. The Ministry will be looking for werewolves now that we took the Wolfsbane and these caves will be searched."

"Are you confident we can wait until the morning?"

"On my way back here I sent a trace to Cairo, a little trick I learned in the first war. It will take them a little while to realise it's a decoy."

"What do I do next?"

Arun bit her lip, "There's a muggle mine I use sometimes when I loot tombs. it's disused but there is a spring for fresh water. It's closer to Luxor, but not so close that it will be easy for you to be spotted. I'll get you enough food to see you through to the end of your transformation. I'll take Lupin into Luxor with me, he's not wanted like you are and when we have a plan he can come back and tell you what happens. If you get spooked there's a tomb nearby that the ministry doesn't know about, it's been picked dry and it's little more than a room in the hillside but it will do to hide you, i'll walk you to it in the morning."

Fenrir nodded and rolled from his side onto his back, "I'm looking forward to Albania," he told her.

After leading the werewolfs to their new hiding place Arun and Lupin went back to the city. He was off with her, and he hardly spoke to her as they made their way back to her apartment. Lupin looked around with unease as he stood in the doorway.

"What?"

"This is nice."

Arun realised what he was getting at. "I didn't kill the muggles I got this from. I paid them in muggle money."

"From where?"

"What do you mean?"

"Where did you get the muggle money?"

She frowned at him, "What does that matter."

"You're abusing your power. You're taking what you want from people who can't protest."

"Should I live like you? Window cleaning in Yorkshire because I feel bad waving my wand and going _accio money?_ "

"You can't accio money in England."

"You don't have to," Arun chuckled, and she sat in the seat by her window and looked out over the city, "Look at that view Remus."

He crossed to the window and looked out but something was bothering him, "it's quite something," he muttered. "So hot though."

"It's a cesspit, but I love it." she leant her head against the stonework and felt the hot air play around her chin. "We've got a while to wait until we meet my contact. I'm going to spend my time brewing healing potions. You can help, or you can relax and read but I don't recommend leaving the apartment."

Lupin nodded. "Whatever you think is best," he muttered.

"Say what you want to say, Lupin, I don't think I can deal with your sanctimonious judgment all day."

Lupin clenched his jaw, "I have nothing to say."

"Yes you do," Arun laughed at him. "You wonder who's side I'm on. You think I'm a Death Eater and it doesn't sit right to work with me, but here I am trying to foil a plot to stop the American Dark Wizards. How confusing. You feel you've compromised yourself because you're working with Greyback and he's the one who turned you. Am I on the right track? Oh, and you hate me because I played both sides in the war, and survived, and all your friends are gone. There's no justice in that at all, so you resent me." She raised an eyebrow. "You dearly want me to prove your reservations are wrong, but even though I say my magic is all show, you don't believe me. You think I'm a liar and a cheat, a powerful one at that."

Lupin scratched sweat from his sideburns and sniffed.

"I'm a terrible person, a selfish person, who has nothing she cares about unless it's concerned with her own advancement and yet here I am trying to rescue my sister. But _am I?"_ Arun pouted. "Or am I going to sell her out, am I going to _use_ her to get the Grants Artifacts because really I am a true-" she held her hands up to the sky, "A true follower of the Dark Lord," she called out the last bit and then fell about laughing.

Lupin didn't laugh.

"Am I?" she asked. "Am I right? Have I been weighed, measured and found wanting Lupin?"

"You're terrified, aren't you?"

Arun laughed again, but this time it sounded hollow, even to her. "Are you any good with potions?"

Lupin put his hand on her shoulder, he gave her a half smile full of pity, "I'm useless," he said.

She used her potion stores from her travel case, there wasn't enough for everybody but it was more than nothing. She studied the map with Lupin, and talked about the most likely sites, but without James Deacon's intel there was not much more that they could do. Despite Lupin's hesitance around her, she did enjoy his company. He was polite and he made a good cup of green tea. They spoke about bage things, easy things, like Prophet stories and Quidditch, their shared love for the muggle band Black Sabbath and single malt fire whisky, but they never transcended it. Six pm approached quicker than she thought it would, and they left at five thirty and made their way to the Delta Crocodile on foot. They had to wait to be seated, Arun said who they intended to meet, and they were let through. Somebody ran ahead of them to get another seat prepared. Deacon had not been expecting two.

He had a muggle gun strapped to his hip, and a cowboy hat placed over the back of his chair. He studied Remus with suspicion.

"I was not expecting company."

"You didn't think it was a date, did you James?" she asked. "How do you like me now?" She gave him a twirl.

"Just fine," he muttered. "Sit down."

They both sat, James' eyes kept switching across to Remus and back.

"Yes," Arun hissed whilst Remus studied the menu with wide eyes, "Get over it Deacon, he's part of the plan." she looked back to Lupin. "What are you looking at?"

"How much for wine?" he stammered.

Arun rolled her eyes and looked at Deacon, "Any luck?"

"As I have told you, I am a man of tenacity. I would not be sat before you now without information of the highest calibre, however, I must remind you that you are yet to uphold your part of this here bargain. I do not have in my possession the item which we agreed upon." He leaned in when he said this and Arun smiled at him and reached into her pocket. She drew out a cigarette and lit it at the table.

"Why would I give it to you now?" she asked. "You have so much time to screw me over."

"Have I not shown you my worth?"

"No. you've shown me squat. I get your notepad and map back, I put myself in danger, and you take take take and give me nothing, Deacon. Give me _something_ to work with."

In company he was not so sure of himself, talking to Arun as a woman and not as a small Egyptian man had quite the effect on him too it seemed. Deacon picked up his cold beer and his eyes narrowed. "At least show me you have it."

"I have it."

"Show me."

Arun had expected it, she drew the spike from her drawstring purse, rather than her travel trunk, she didn't trust Deacon yet and the last thing she wanted to do was show him how she was storing the Grants Artifacts. He leaned in and studied it, as did Lupin, and then he sat back satisfied. "I have, through inexhaustible detective work, found out that The Temple of Bes, the Temple of Aten, The Tomb of Gib, and the pyramid of Khepri are the locations where the artefacts are stored. They have around twenty people guarding the artefacts at each site. The guards are a mix of Americans and local hands for hire. They have set up parameters and protections, to get close you would have to go in on foot and the shield is a strong one, so they would know you were coming. Personally, whilst the artefacts are locked down like that there is no way of you getting in. Their numbers have been somewhat inflated owing to the fact that a number of werewolves broke into a Kennel and stole a quantity of wolfsbane last night. The Americans have brought protection from the local law enforcement as they are claiming that they are 'protecting sites of national importance from a bunch of-" he leaned forward to say this specifically to Lupin "diseased monsters."

Lupin's jaw set hard and he looked down at the menu.

"And my sister?"

"Ah- well now Miss Granville, looks like you will need to give me that spike to get the rest of my information."

Arun looked across to Lupin, he met her eye and she saw his thoughts, he was furious and he felt sick, insulted. She looked back at Deacon, behind his eyes was a smug desire to one up, but also a wave of distinct anger which she had assumed was towards the Americans, but now she wasn't so sure.

"Tell me about my sister Deacon, She said you and her were close."

"Did she," He flashed her a winning smile but the anger didn't leave him. "She was a fine woman miss Granville, a fine woman." she bested him. "A woman of singular mind and superior drive." she humiliated him. "She was a force to be reckoned with indeed." She made him love her and she didn't return it.

Arun sat back and studied him, "How long until this place is overrun with Egyptian Auras?"

James' smile fixed on his face, "Come now Miss Granville," he chuckled. "All you need to do is hand the Artefacts over, the Ministry will do the rest. You're under arrest of course."

Arun snarled, Lupin had his wand out in a flash. Deacon pulled a gun and his wand. The muggles in the restaurant screamed and dove for cover and the doors banged open. Arun grabbed Lupin and tried to apparate but couldn't. "Get close to me Remus, I'm going to do something you don't like."

"Give it up Arun, you're surrounded and you're outnumbered, Give me the oran spike and the artefacts."

"Don't kill anybody," Lupin urged her as he turned to watch her back.

Arundel was hardly listening, her eyes were darting around the room, the windows, the doors, the chimney. The exits were blocked.

"Give me your wand," Deacon demanded of her. "And the spike."

She licked her tongue across her teeth.

"Give me your wand!" he demanded, swinging the gun into her face. "Muggles ahy, they make these little toys and I swear they do more damage than our fine weapons."

"Get that gun out of my face," Arun growled.

"Give me your wand Arundel."

She reached into her pocket as if to draw her wand out but with her free hand she flicked the palm up and black smoke poured out of it, hot arid and sulphuric smoke which filled the whole room. Deacon fired into it, coughing and cursing as he did. His bullets whizzed past her as she ducked and ran, still pouring black smoke into the room. One hand firmly on Lupins wrist she fumbled for an exit, but inside the room, people were shouting and she felt the first gusts of wind start to clear her thick smog. Her hand found the bottom of a flight of stairs and she launched herself up them. Behind her, a bullet smashed into the wall. Lupin was putting up a brave defence behind her, casting shields and deflection charms as they tried to get away. They raced up the stairs and into a long empty dining hall. Arun put her finger to her lips and motioned to the door on the far side of the hall, they crept towards it and Arun pushed the door open, as soon as it swung she was blasted by a stunning hex, she deflected it, a nearby table blew up. She let off a volley of curses and heard three thumps as the attackers fell. They jumped the bodies and took another flight of stairs up to the roof.

"Stop and drop your wands, you are under arrest."

Arun swung around without thinking and sent a blast of fire in the direction of the voice. The speaker defended himself but in the process, he stopped watching Arun. her grip tightened on Lupins arm and she launched herself into the sky.


	25. Chapter 25

Tomb Raider

"That bastard," Arun screamed as they landed in the western desert. Lupin fell away from her. "That no good, double-crossing, bastard!" She kicked at sand and rock, "He's made it twice as hard now! Twice as hard!"

"Arundel-"

"And now the ministry know don't they, they know about the werewolves and they know about me and the Americans and the trade. They know and they will go blundering in and they will get my sister killed!"

Arundel-"

"We have to attack them, we have to get my sister back, Sod the Artefacts!"

Lupin collapsed onto his side. Arundel's eyes widened and she ran to him. His leg was bleeding, a small round hole penetrated the front but the back was shot away. Lupin was going pale, he was shaking and his eyes were rolling into his head. Arun dived into her travel trunk and pulled out potions. She used the Vulnera Sanentur spell to stem the bleeding and mend the worst of the damage, alongside a blood replenishing potion and she dragged him into her shrunken case and sat him on the sofa. Lupin drifted in and out of consciousness. "Have you anything for the pain?" he gasped. She gave him ibuprofen and paracetamol; sometimes Muggle drugs did the trick.

She sat with him throughout the night, reading old books and silently fuming about being double-crossed. Lupin woke up in the early hours of the morning but Arun hadn't managed to get any sleep and when he turned onto his side she looked up at him. "Sorry, today was not…"

"Don't apologize, He didn't get the spike, the artefacts or the location of the werewolves. We most likely gained more than we lost."

"You nearly lost a leg."

"Muggle weapons hurt."

"Yep, yes they do." Arun closed her book and scratched the back of her head. Lupin watched her for a moment, then he tried to sit up.

"I haven't taken my wolfsbane."

"I know."

"I'm going to be useless in this fight."

"Maybe if you take today's and you might have some ability to direct your rage…"

"It's a risk."

Arun didn't answer him. She studied her nails as she thought about what to do. "How much do you think James Deacon told the Ministry?"

"He's like you right? A tomb robber?"

"Mercenary," Arundel corrected. "But yes. He wants the Oran Spike, but he's not inclined to work for Dark Wizards, I do believe that."

"You think he's got a plan?"

"I think he's offered the Ministry the Grants Artefacts in exchange for the Oran Spike, and he's banking on the ministry running the Americans out, but in the process he condemns my sister. He wasn't expecting me to turn up today with you. The quantity of Wolfsbane we stole will be enough proof to make the ministry aware that I have reinforcements."

"Do you know anybody who works for the Aruas here?"

"No."

"I do."

Arun tilted her head, "who?"

"Albus Dumbledore has a friend, Babajide Akingbade who is-"

"I don't want to involve Dumbledore."

Lupin scratched the back of his neck. Arun studied him with wide eyes, "Seriously Lupin?" she screeched.

"Without his orders there is no way in hell I would go anywhere near Fenrir Greyback." Lupin told her, he leaned in. "Arun listen to me," he took her by the shoulder and forced her round to face him. "If you want to win you have to trust us to help."

Arun stood up and backed away from him, "What is wrong with him?" she shouted.

Lupin threw his hands up, "He's a good man!"

"He is not a good man. He's a manipulative bastard who uses people like chess pieces. He wants me to be compromised, he wants to force me to pick a side. To alienate myself from the alys of the dark lord so I am _forced_ to fight with him. _Forced_ to turn against my friends. How DARE he."

"Your Sister!" Lupin shouted back. "Your sister is being held."

"I will get her back. I will. Not Dumbledore, not his friends, not his followers. Me."

Lupin hung his head. "If we convince Akingbade to back us we will have reinforcements should the exchange go wrong. It gives us options Arun."

She stood up. "I'm going for a walk." she got up and crawled out of the travel trunk, then she put it around her neck and stood breathing deep in the still desert air.

It was quiet in the desert, the stars winked and the air was ice cold. She closed her eyes and took a steadying breath. She should have seen that one coming; Lupin was Dumbledore's loyal pet. In her rush to save her sister, in her blind desperation, she was getting sloppy. If her sister was removed from this bargain what would she do? There had to be a way, she just needed to be as ruthless as Dumbledore.

Hix and Lace stood outside the Temple of Khenti Amentiu surrounded by an army of american dark wizards and witches. Above the towering face of the temple entrance, the full moon shone like a desaturated sun. She could feel the protections shimmering in the air. The americans had created a killing field around the temple, a protective bubble that would deflect all spells and rappel all magical beings who were not already inside or invited. Every single wizard, in full ceremonial robes, looked in one direction. At her. As she stood bathed in the light of the moon and the fire, alone, and carrying the full sized travel trunk, dragging it across the ground until she stood in front of Hix and Lace. Surrounded. Outnumbered. Alone.

"Arundel Granville, you have given us quite the run around," Lace shouted across the gulf between them

"Where is my sister Mr Lace?"

"Where are the artifacts Miss Granville?"

"In this trunk."

Lace didn't seem convinced. Arun looked around but the other artifacts were not at the temple. Lace nodded to one of the guards who crossed to her. "Show me," he said.

Arun opened the case, showing him the eight compartments and she drew open each one, the sword, the horseshoe and the flag. The guard looked up at Lace and nodded.

"Now show me my sister, or I leave and I dare you to try and stop me Lace, how many of your men do you think I can take with me?"

Lace turned to Hix, "what an unpleasant woman," he sighed. "Bring her sister."

Hix motioned behind him, and from the temple depths Amber was frogmarched out, her hands were tied, there was a rope around her neck and she had been beaten badly but it was her. Ambers eyes connected with Arundel's _what have you done?_ Her sister was devastated.

"Where is her wand Lace?"

"Her wand?" Lace looked at Hix. "Do we have that too?"

Arun's grip on the full size travel trunk tightened, "Returned to me without harm means with her wand intact."

"Move forward with the trunk, stand by the fire pit in the center of the walkway." Lace commanded, "Then drop the Trunk to the right and take three steps back."

"Will you do the same?"

"Yes, we'll do the same."

Arun started to walk forward, the woman with the dark eyes gave Hix Ambers wand and he also walked forward with her. Arun left the trunk on the right, Hix left Amber to the left. They regarded each other coldly for a moment and he straightened up and looked at her over the fire. "All this, for what?" he asked. "Help me understand Arun?"

"His power is not yours to take, Hix. You are not worthy."

Hix started to laugh, "You did this out of loyalty?"

"Out of necessity."

"Well, we've won now, and you have lost everything. Perhaps you are the one who is unworthy."

"Blood comes first."

"We've apprehended your werewolfs, by the way, found them trying to attack the northern quarter of the temple. And the ministry isn't coming to stop us. You've lost Arun,"

Arun turned away from him, her eyes glistening with tears. "I've got my sister back Hix," she muttered.

"Here," Hix passed Arun Ambers wand and then he picked up the case. "I would love to say it was a pleasure doing business with you but…" He nodded, picked up the travel trunk and dragged it away with him. Arun took Amber's hand and they started to walk back the way they came, but the dark wizards had closed ranks around them.

"Oh shit Arun," Amber muttered.

"Hold on to me," Arun tried to fly but she felt the weight of the protection spells stopping her, she could only fly a few feet from the ground and thirty dark wizard wands pointed in her direction. It would be moments before they used the killing curse, She shouted to Amber to cast a protective shield and she took a deep breath. The ground under her began to crack and shake, the air shimmered and Amber whimpered. Arun pointed her hands directly above her, a shock of blue light blasted from her and split open the protective spells then she launched herself into the sky again with Amber on her back.

They landed near the temple of the Snake Eyed King. Amber staggered and fell back against one of the sandstone pillars and she hung her head.

"Amber, you ok?"

"You should have left them to kill me, Arun," Amber spat. "They have everything now."

Arun sat back and studied her, "What did they do to you?"

"They tortured me. They wanted to know about you, about what you planned to do, about your relationship with me. About your relationship with the Death Eaters."

"Did you tell them?"

"Half truths and lies," she told Arun, "But they know about the Oran Spike, they know about the werewolfs. And now they have all seven artifacts, so they are unstoppable."

"Do they know how to make the artifacts work?"

"Yes. Seven people each hold an artifact whilst standing in a circle, when the seven artifacts are united they can use it to resurrect and control any number of things. To make it work, on the waning of the full moon the seven must each bleed onto their artifact to make it their own, then there is an incantation that all of them say together and they need an object from the person or people they wish to resurrect."

"What do they have that belonged to the Dark Lord?"

"A toenail clipping."

Amber pulled a face, "Somebody kept-"

"Yes."

"How does the Oran Spike work then. Do I have to kill all seven people and drive it through the artifacts one by one?"

"The Oran spike needs to be driven into the 'heart' of the thing it is destroying. But the Grants artifacts need to be destroyed at the same time."

Arun nodded.

"It's over now, isn't it?" Amber asked. "I mean everything, my job, my life, My professor betrayed me."

"I know."

"You know?"

"James Deacon wanted his book and map back."

"I warned you about him."

"Painting Amber did not warn me she said 'find him'."

"Yeah, find him and beat the information out of him, he's a slug."

Arun looked away, "it's not over."

"Did Hix say something about werewolves?"

"Yes."

Amber nodded and looked at the moon. "It's not over?"

"Come with me."

She walked into the temple of the Snake Eyed King where a mass of black vipers had congregated just in the doorway, Arun spoke to them and they moved apart to let her through. At the bottom of a statue of the pharaoh, Arun had placed Portrait Amber.

"You made me a shrine?"

"I made something better than that."

Portrait Amber smiled, turned and walked away and behind her a doorway formed. Together they rushed down the dark tunnel and came out into Arun's travel chest, where three werewolves passed. Amber pressed into Arun as three heads snapped in their direction and three sets of jowls drew back into snarls. They didn't attack though, and when one lunged, the other two darted in front of it and pushed it back.

"Wolfsbane," Arun told Amber. And she pointed to a painting that showed the world outside.

"We just need to…"

"You think they will put all the artifacts in the case because it's more convenient?"

"That's what I'm hoping."

Amber started to laugh, but when the wolf's snarled she stopped. "It better be quick."

They waited by the painting, watching as Hix paid off the Ministry and the mercenaries and then was paid himself by Lace and he departed. Amber drank a restorative potion. Arun meditated. All the dark wizards congregated and then disapperated to America. The trunk was placed on the floor in front of a colonial mansion. Then they watched the other Artifacts being brought towards the travel case, they felt it rock as the lid was opened and they counted until all of them were together, stored safely.

Lace gave a command to somebody, Amber lip read, "Put a guard on the trunk, put it in the armoury and prepare for the- blood- for the blood ritual."

"They are doing it tonight?"

"Maybe they don't need a waning moon?"

Arun looked across at the werewolfs, "Sooner or later they will attack us from sheer frustration, they are hardly keeping it together."

The trunk was taken into the house, they noted each twist and turn of it. Amber spoke quickly, "As soon as you drive the spike into the chest you will unlock the curse. You'll have to fight it, I will go with the werewolves and take on the americans. We just have to hold the Armory right? As soon as you are done we need to get out of there."

"With the wolves."

"How?" Amber looked across to them. The wolves were listening.

Arun looked too, then she picked up a blanket from the sofa and muttered " _Portus,_ " She looked at them all, "This will go in thirty minutes time."

"Is that long enough?"

"It better be."

The guards put the trunk down, then Arun watched them start to walk away, she looked at everybody. "Ready?" she asked.

The wolf's snarled. Amber nodded. Arundel pushed the lid open. The werewolf's shot up the stairs and burst out of the trunk, Amber followed but from that point on Arun stopped paying attention to them. Spike in hand she slammed the lid of the trunk and shrunk it, then with the spike she lifted it up and drove it as hard as she could into the lid. The spike made a deep clang which reverberated around the whole chamber, and then with a deathening crack, the trunk broke apart and a deep white mist flowed from it. The room filled with whispers, Arun stumbled and grabbed the spike again. The whispers turned to laughter and the laughter turned into the ghosts of the people she had killed. There were so many of them. More than she had expected, The security guard, the muggle girl, the messenger, and more and more who crowded her and whispered to and then they attacked. She parried curses and deflected cutting and stinging attacks, she was slashed in the arm and chest, she used Fire and Ice and water to try and dissipate them but they just kept coming, and then she used the spike, which drove them back but did not stop them. She conjured her patronus, hers was a huge snake, it reared up and striked at the ghosts over and over.

"Arun!" Amber screamed from some distant place. "We're running out of time!"

A hex shattered her arm and span her round. She landed on the floor by the trunk, spike still in hand, whilst her Patronus battled above her. Fire racked across her back, she deflected it but felt her skin bubble. In desperation she stabbed the trunk again, The Ghosts screamed, and the attack became ever more furious. Again and again and again she drove the spike into the chest, and on the seventh time as the spike drove down into the wood the air rushed from the chamber and Arun realised in horror that it was about to explode.

She looked at the portkey, Two of the wolf's and Amber were waiting, holding it looking at her in horror, a third wolf lay dead just outside the door. People were screaming in the corridor and she rushed and took a corner of the portkey too, but it was not going, it was not time. "Shields!" Arun screeched and she cast the best protective bubble around them that she could muster. The ground was shaking, the ceiling was cracking then everything went still.

Arun swallowed.

And everything turned golden white.


	26. Chapter 26

Albania.

Arun studied the wounds on her arms from the battle in America and wondered if they would ever heal properly. It was two weeks now, but the ghostly handprint of the dead who attacked her still hurt. The fire that had burned her shoulder left a scar too. She raised a cigarette up to her lips and took a long drag, listening to the birds chirping in the trees above her, when she exhaled her breath mingled with the smoke and sent a cloud up into the grey sky. On the ground, snow had settled. In one swift movement, all the birds took flight from the trees, spooked by something. Arun turned and studied her surroundings, A great snake slithered to her and curled around her feet. Arun flicked her cigarette away.

"Hello, Nagini."

The snake chuckled, " _I don't do well in the cold Arundel."_

"Then lead the way."

The snake turned and slithered through the undergrowth, downhill, along a stream and into a cave where it curled up next to the body of a huge brown bear. Arun bowed her head, went onto one knee and bit at her lip whilst she waited.

" _Is it done?"_

"It is."

" _Those fools think they can use my name, my powers."_

Arun stayed silent, her head still bowed.

" _Who helped you?"_

"The Malfoys, Snape, Fenrir Greyback. Dumbledore tried to manipulate me, the other Death Eaters did not side with the Americans when the Malfoys told them not to."

" _And your sister?"_

"She helped too."

" _I am so weak, Arundel, so pathetic, so unable."_

Arun looked up at him, "You're in a bear."

" _I sit inside his hibernating brain providing warmth for my darling Nagini. If he were to wake I would be little more than a passenger. You see before you a shadow, a memory of greatness, nothing more."_

"I can contact the Death Eaters, they could collect you, restore you."

" _No."_

Arun nodded, she knew it would be his answer.

" _They are not my followers. They follow tradition and blood, and they confuse power with comfort. Those lazy, entitled bastards will fall away as soon as they see that they need not fear me any longer."_

Arun shifted and sat cross-legged on the floor. "Fenrir is coming to Albania, I am helping him break into a prison to turn the prisoners into werewolves. Many of his people died in Egypt."

" _Do not bring him to my doorstep. He must not know I have survived, not yet."_

Arun nodded, "I need to go. I am supposed to be meeting him in a few hours," she got up, she turned to the exit and started to walk from the cave.

" _Barty Crouch Jr."_

She turned to look at her uncle. She studied him for a long while and she nodded. "Just Barty?" she asked.

" _Yes,"_ Voldemort told her. " _And this time do not involve anybody else."_


End file.
